People used to tell me
\nto my face
\nthat I am a saint.<\/p>\n
In truth,
\nI am a teacher.
\nA teacher who learned early on
\nto hide lavendar throughout the classroom
\nto counteract farts and puberty sweat smells.
\nYes, a teacher who learned early on
\nto stay on the good side of the custodian
\nto counteract bodily functions and feats of inexplicable behavior.<\/p>\n
In one day, yes, just one day,
\nI single handedly traced the owner of a pair of boots
\nthat one of my students had in his backpack.
\nHe had his own boots in his locker.
\nHis shoes, worn through and soaking wet with snow on his feet.
\nThe owner of the boots did not go to the same school.
\nImploring and empowering a bus driver with a midday run,
\nThe boots found their rightful owner before lunch recess.<\/p>\n
The student is working in a study carrel asks for help
\nAs we work through the problem, I notice purple goop on his head
\n“Tell me about this.” I ask as I gently touch the goo.
\nA large patch of his hair adheres to my fingers.
\nHe quickly tells me in one breath that he accidentally and in no way on purpose cut his hair.
\nHe doesn’t want me to be mad, so he glued his hair back on his head.
\nDumbfounded, all I can think is where was I? How did I miss this?<\/p>\n
Oh, no.
\nBarely started, we are by no means done.
\nThe student is slow to dress for a snowy recess.
\nHe is not in good humor, having been reminded to wear his boots outside.
\nThe battle for independence is sometimes slow
\nand in this case, too slow for the other children.
\nTo prevent overheating, I left the student in the classroom and led the other students out.
\nWhen I returned, the students cheeks were packed full with something.
\n“What do you have in your mouth?” I ask sternly.
\nThe student takes pains to cover his mouth before answering “Nothing.”
\nI look down and notice the now empty cookie tin on the floor.
\n“No cookies for snack.” I say in dismay.
\nA whole package of cookies,
\nIn mere minutes.<\/p>\n
He heads out to play.
\nThere’s no sense in punishing both of us.
\nI’m no saint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
People used to tell me to my face that I am a saint. In truth, I am a teacher. A teacher who learned early on to hide lavendar throughout the classroom to counteract farts and puberty sweat smells. Yes, a teacher who learned early on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2114,1136,441,5],"tags":[2538],"class_list":["post-137207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-announcement","category-official-marathon-prompts","category-poetry-prompt-responses","category-poetry-prompts","tag-hour13"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137207"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137746,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137207\/revisions\/137746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}