Texting In Class
My students text
Under their desks
With a whisper of
Zipper and pocket
Mean teachers make
You read your messages
Out loud to the class
I would never do that
But I know why they do
They are jealous you
Have Jamar to talk to
And those tiny fruits
They also want to know
Is your mom home for dinner
Why you are rolling on the floor
Who said Kendra is a ho
What happened when
Kendra heard about Jamar
No one calls him a ho
Please respect sex workers
One time Carlos stopped
The class to show us all
A real-looking video of
The principal licking his cat
Even though it wasn’t true
It was so much better than
Tariff wars of the twenties
I watched it 69 times
That cat is alive and not
Like this classroom which
Is here and elsewhere
A random subatomic event
Who are the other people
In the room with us
We can’t see and
What do they think of me
Classroom seance
Eggplant peach fire
Words that burn the
Screens back to sand
–Ticky Kennedy
Reclusive Poet in Residence
SchoolNewsToday.com
NOTE
According to The Wall Street Journal, a significant percentage of texts in classrooms are from parents contacting their children about plans and mealtimes. Parents also want their children to have phones at school so they can make sure they are alive in case of a school shooting.
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