From RLB

Today's prompt is to take a line of my choosing and incorporate it into your poem in some way. You can use the line as the title of your poem, as the last line, as the first line, or even drop it somewhere in the middle--but you must use the line somewhere. And a special note to you "rule benders": No, you cannot break up the line into individual words or phrases. The whole line must be used, though you can definitely insert a line break or two if you wish.

So, what's the line anyway? It is: There is no connection.


Even Teachers Get to Have Fun Sometimes

Today in class one of my students, not
knowing how to start an English essay asked,
How is the past an indicator of the future?

I am a history teacher, and as you know,
teachers know everything. We have no life
outside of school. In fact, some of us
live in our classrooms, pulling our Murphy beds
from beneath the chalkboard, shower up
in the denizens of the faculty lounge. Her logic
in asking me was, shall we say, inspired.

Trying to act the clown, or just to see her face
I replied as straight as I could, There is no
connection, no way to tell from one day to the next
what is going to happen. I pause before adding,
Haven't you ever heard of Chaos Theory?

This is the part I always like best, when they
ask themselves if they heard me right, decide
if they can trust what I have told them.

Sometimes, they catch on right away, think back
to the beginning of the year when I told them
about Heraclitus, how you can never step
into the same river twice, how all things
are connected. Then their smile comes
and they know the real answer is yet to come.

That's when I know I have them, know when
they are going to really listen, give this whole
school thing at least one more shot, let in
just a little more light into the cave and
dust down the shelves of their minds.

__________________________


Yeah, I know it's a little lot cheesey, but I'm allowed to write one bad teacher poem.