In Time of War, 1942
Weekly assembly
Bible reading
Principal intoning
Everyone white-shirted-bloused
Except for me
Whose sole white shirt
Unworn because unwashed
Which did not go unnoticed
An Assistant Principal
Castigator of trivial transgressions
Breathed fire upon me
Before my stony class
Melting me to a puddle of disgrace
In which I lay bleeding tears
And I never forgave
Even to this very day
What festered within her
To prompt such eager disdain
Heaping helpings of ineluctable shame
Upon a child in time of war
I see me weeping yet
Raise your hand who share my pain
Applaud she is by now forever dead
Whom lightning must have struck at last
10/3-10/6/07
Copyright 2007 by Maurice Leiter
Posted with permission.
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