Unsupervised

Second grade was free and unruly.

Accustomed to my teacher’s absense

For a mysterious illness or suspicious injury,

We ran amuck and terrorized subs.

Peyton got six concussions that year

But that wasn’t why he couldn’t read.

Sub after sub would quit on our class

Before recess when they entered the eye

Before Ms. Burkhart’s hurricane finished them.

Some kids would refuse to do anything,

While others wouldn’t even come to class.

I remember the power outage

After a kid’s tantrum destroyed the electrical box.

The sub got locked out of the room,

And gave up on us, and cried.