Watching First-Graders Line Up For Lunch

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WATCHING FIRST-GRADERS LINE UP FOR LUNCH


And maybe it would break 

your mother’s back, pop it like 

a firecracker. In that case, 


praise the careful steps of first-

graders, the little skips and hops over

tragedy, backs yet unbroken by mother


or someone else who says they know

how the world works. Pray

it won't happen like it did 


to many of us. We couldn’t bend

low enough to see the gnomes 

anymore, wouldn’t climb 


high enough to talk to trees.  

Some never recovered. They

bustle around now, here


and there with certain steps, breaking 

backs who break their children

back until the world lays


itself out, unable to dance,

like a long stretch of sidewalk

                        and no chalk.

 

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