A few weeks before
The horror show,
Phantasmagoria arrives
Like birds flying south for the winter.
These dark dreams are
Filled with classroom beasts—
Rude, crude, & highly disgusting.

A few students
Salted here & there
Like a fake gold mine
In the middle of
illiterate bedlam.
Where liars, cheaters,
And word eaters rule.

If books were liquid candy
This mob would chug-a-lug
All day long,
But books ‘ain’t’
Sweet to the sound-bite-kids
Whose world swirls
Along an Internet highway
Cluttered with video games,
Saturated with fat and sugar.

Hey, we got brain tumors &
Diabetes by the greasy bag full.
Come and collect the rhythm;
Listen to the beat of radiation
Burning cancer cells.
Let’s medicate to live the good life
For kids with asthma inhaling.

Lunch arrives with a fight;
The herd
Dressed in the latest
Baggy fashions,
Stampedes to watch.
“Hey, beat the shit out of that god damned punk!”
It’s all they will talk about
Fifth period.

The latest ‘anti-hero’ earns five days of suspension
While Hollywood considers another reality series
With our ’stars’ in the lead role.
Teachers will be cast as misfits.
That’s the red, white and blue American classroom
As patriotic as mom, the flag and apple pie.