Testing teacher and I give each other a smile.
Does she mean it?
I didn’t.
She has been mean.
But I am socialized.
So I pretend.
As she does.
We are stuck in the same room for ninety minutes.
I pretend to like her.
Doubt either of us are fooled.
I didn't realize I hadn't posted my first poem I ever had published (albeit in a small newsletter). It was my first attempt at poetry after having been humiliated in high school (by an English teacher, no less) and I was proctoring a bar exam. I had written it on the back of one of those little passes we gave to students who needed to go to the restroom, if I remember correctly. Anyway, it was about my girlfriend's greyhound, who lived with me for several years (so he was kind of mine too). His name was Mikey, and he was a wonderful, unique pup.
MIKEY
Light foot flash on oval track,
Halvah-shaded straining back,
Playful buck, so full of *****,
Gentleman, yet ready to funk,
Bouncing, prancing, bowing boy,
Love ta shake dat rabbit toy.
Who would think that anyone,
After all that money and fun,
Would put beauty down to rest?
Glad we got him, he's the best.
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