Is our true love was going anywhere?
After traditional local fun fair
Nothing does compare, with the teasing scare
Where we share, our mature teen age affair
Passing written notes, from pens we borrow
Wonder about future, unknown horror
Sunny blue skies? After we say goodbye?
Studying college courses are new try
Meeting new friends, saying, he’s a nice guy
Semester we wander getting credit
Attend class confessing "should have read it"
Or the other excuse, “I don’t get it”
Compass directs one to the campus bar
Healing wounds from the bloody mark grade scar
And making out with a long neck lone star
He stands, mocking, full of his worth
and crowned by stinging opinion
He’s won. By one.
‘Not even one whole point’ I want to say
to everyone - ‘by a rounding error.’
We rejoice in wooden dialogue
snaps are fired, content is captured
I feel ridiculous and awkward
As the great pageant ends,
he leans in, in a hugging action
but I will not grow dainty with this - prince
- and I step out of his hands
"Seriously?” I mumble, shivering.
.
.
.
There’s an old saying (in my family), "Show me a happy loser and I'll show you a loser - show me an unhappy loser and I'll show you a loser."
No one ever told me to enjoy my childhood.
No one ever forced me to enjoy my childhood.
They graciously let me study for my tests.
Tests that contain circles and an X here and there.
Paper that tells me that I’m not wasting my time, being a teacher’s pet.
Once in a while, the teacher would call me to her desk.
I would hesitate, because she knows.
She’s about to tell me that I didn’t make any friends this year. And that she was going to punish me for that.
She’s about to show me a list of the people that hate me. Of the people who gave up on being friends with me.
A failing grade.
I would eventually make my way to the front.
Taking even, steady steps, even as I feel wobbly.
A smile, and the words I’ve been hearing my whole school career.
But I’m frowning, because the bell rang, and recess is here.
Kids running around.
And around and around.
("Eye of God", 2018, original encaustic mixed media - wax, pigments and mirror)
Clearly God Grades On a Curve
After several hours of working hard
finishing up siding a small sheep shed,
before winter comes and the cold winds blow,
I lay in the warm bath, seduced
to the edge of sleep by two sips of beer.
I’m roused by a rousing motivational speech
delivered apparently to all the minions
within my body-mind.
And like Whitman, it seems the multitudes
I contain are vast.
Workers, common laborers and skilled,
designers, engineers, and inspectors,
critics, loafers, the assorted homeless bums
and burnt out hippies fried by one too many trips
to who knows where, seeking who knows what…
Anyway, the speech I remember,
the part that woke me,
was the simple affirmation
that they’d all earned,
“An A for effort!”
And laying there half submerged
nursing my sore joints and tired limbs,
I realized with the calm assurance
of the mystic, that clearly
God grades on a curve.
(9/9/23)
Remarks
An average
Face of disappointment
Thy guilt towards discontentment
Bad grades
My latest piece is 388 characters too long for the poetry section.
So, I posted it in "Short Stories" (Other sites don't have this limit)
Here's the link...
www.poetrysoup.com/short_stories/stupid_10822
If you bother, I hope you like it
Ever since the world began
there were those who 'also ran.'
Not for them the highest grades,
not for them great accolades.
Mediocrity rarely shatter.
That they ran is what most matters.
Peas can be green, yellow or black
Often sweet, never sour
You can eat them at virtually any hour
Yet when finished, who is ever satisfied
I've posted a new short story.
Because the length of pieces we can post here is crazy limited.
https://www.poetrysoup.com/short_stories/grades_ruin_everything_9428
Grades merely quantify your hard work
Don't let them clarify your future
Scoring low grades don't count
It's not the end of the world.
Education is an enlightening experience
Dream what are you be and good at
Collaboration is vital for success
Study for knowledge but, not for grades
I'm not saying; you shouldn't score good grades
But, those grades aren't the only thing in life
Learn how to handle the failure
To be the only one in inspiring others
Right to be yourself and be righteous
Breakthrough limitations and keep learning
Imagine your outcome and Follow your heart
Work for integrity and succeed in integrity.
The students in my classrooms were deeper than the rest!
They yearned for knowledge only, and I, their prof, felt blessed.
This was my giddy thought
when my first class I taught…
until I heard the ditty: "Will this be on the test?”
It gloomed in the room
Just when my thoughts bloomed
I felt a blowing air
In seemed so near
I was ready to err
But it was not fair
It was so great
But not as my grade
Then i smile
Seen from a mile
Though it was mild
But not be wild
Teaching
should engage
both the mind
and the heart
~ not tear the two apart
Tests
should give students a chance
to sparkle and shine
to show what they know
~ to develop and grow
Tests
shoud be just that --
not guessing games
~ for shame
for shame
Grades
should really be
aids to learning
not judgment
or ~ punishment
Grades
should show the teacher
which students his teaching
is reaching
And which ones view it
~ as preaching
or screeching
Elementary Grades
By Franklin Price
5/3/2016
Elementary grades took long to come
Could not wait to get me some
Five other siblings went before
So I knew a little of the score
Was not supposed to talk all day
Recess the time to yell and play
Grades were “E” and “S” and “U”
The last not good, strove for the two
Grades were given to perform
The “S” was good and was the norm
The “E” was over and above
The “U” not even mom could love
Then “N” was thrown into the mix
A grade that we could try to fix
The “N” improvement needed there
A second chance was more than fair
For attendance, conduct and learning work
On reporting cards these grades did lurk
I worked real hard, did well on two
For conduct my talking got a “U”
The teacher said, “who's talking there?”
I knew if I told she'd make me care
To protect myself I could not tattle
My butt might get the corporal paddle
Wasn't long 'til I wasn't loud
Talked quietly within the crowd
And when the year end bell did ring
Had “E” or “S” for everything
Was not that smart but listened well
To learn what teachers had to tell
As for the conduct, I'll tell you what
I never enjoyed a paddled butt.
Once a guy in college
Had a quest for knowledge
Then became drunk
Left in a funk
Now stuck in life's follage!
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