And So We Write

They come to my classroom to learn,

but their faces, their brashness show their fears

as they cry out, “teach me!” And so,

we write, and write some more, their words

tentative on the page, ‘till they find the right

words, the real words they need to say, words to tell

their own stories, not the canon so removed

from them, not the grammar I studied, and their parents,

not a form to fill in, to check the boxes, saying nothing,

but instead, pouring themselves onto the page, their abuses

by the hands that love them, gave them birth,

the expectations of others not their own,

their own fears and pains, their honest selves,

their self-destruction at their own hands, taking

their own lives, ending it, or leaving just a shell

sitting at a desk, pen poised over a sheet of paper

as blank as they feel, waiting for someone else to fill it in,

to tell them what to write to get a grade, a “good grade,”

enough to get them through, get them out, get them

where they want to be, wherever they are bound, now.

And so we write some more, work at it, write it

again, for real, the dreams and the goals to become

a nurse, a doctor, an athlete scoring points, a builder,

designer, creator, to sing, to dance, to run and jump, to fly,

to be happy, rich, content, real, to do what they need to do,

to be what they need to be, writing what it feels like to be them,

young and ready and wanting more, confronting themselves

in a world that cries out for them, cries out to them, yet stops

them, disavows them, that would mold them into the world’s form,

boxes checked, not their own, but they are ready, now, and afraid,

aware and helpless, wanting change but unsure how, unsure when,

unsure and afraid. And so we write, again and again, until we get it

right, ‘till we see ourselves on the page, perfectly imperfect,

accepting what we find there as ourselves, for who else is there, really;

we know only that we are, that we can, perhaps that we will,

and so we write, and keep on writing, writing our lives, beginning to learn.