Two hands in the air
reaching. We stop
and
we stretch.
It looks like praise
for the completion.
It looks like celebration.
We are surrendering.
How we count after
we’ve buckled our shoes,
closed the door,
and begin the daily work.
“Please bring two #2 pencils.”
We lay them straight
across the top
of our finished papers
we know numbers count.
It only means
we’ll be doing this
again and again and again
We are driven by into these “A”-holes:
administration
assessment
achievement
again.
It begins with ring play,
red-rover-rosey-
farmers-picking-wives-
send-(fill in the blank)-on-over
and
it ends with filling in the circle.
“Make heavy black marks.”
“Cleanly erase any answer you wish to change.”
“Make no stray marks on this answer sheet.
The only correct mark in the example
is a fully-colored bubble. It is demonstrated for you.
You hope you get this right. You want to be the child
the wife picks, but know you’ll be the cheese in end.
Cheese begins with “c.”
C’s makes us nervous
at our desks. It’s the middle answer.
It’s a trick.
It’s a trap.
A proctor asks if anyone has a question.
There is procedure here.
The signal is one hand in the air, but
you feel both arms reaching skyward
toward a fluorescent light.
“Yes. . .you have a question.”
A question.
A.
question.
Questions we answer: A.
You put your hands back down
and put them on our lap.
You strive for 89%
at least. A one-time chance
to
B.