Poem: August 9, 2021

 First Day of School

The first day can be a lot,

With all of the procedures

And new cell phone policies,

Herding groups in packs

Of thirty, shuffling in the halls,

And five minutes later,

Alighting in some new room,

Basically the same as the 

Last room and the next, 

Sitting in assigned seats, 

Completing notecards, and

Repeating ice breakers and

Introductions- neat, snaking

Relays of impersonal personal

Information- name, where

You have been, where

You are going, then, something

Quirky about yourself, over

And over until we all want

To know if we can just

Get this started, even if we

Just met, even if we haven’t

Learned each other’s names 

In our eight hours of sameness.

Can we quit dancing already, 

And just break something open?