a poem

Let us stop our hem-hawing
hee-hawing
hoo-hahing

And let us instead
assemble "likes"
and "umms"
and "anyways"
into bumbling, run-on
unselfconscious
unpretentious sentences--

Sentences that help people
drop their shoulders
and breath a sigh of relief
from endless posturing

We'll spark a change and others will join us

Instead of hall passes,
we teachers will hand out respite passes
Permission for others to escape
from homeroom brilliance

We'll let them meander through halls,
remembering (if only for a moment)
that they need not be the smartest
the most refined
or the most clever
to be in our class

-KD