Summer, School
Summer, School
Silent have fallen the locker-loud halls.
Half the lockers, if you were to pull them,
You’d find were open. In the rush to leave,
They didn’t bother locking emptiness,
Unaware of its limitless value,
How often the world tries to fill it.
The classrooms are dark. The ghosts of students
Who grew up, grew old, died, and decided
To return to this place to relearn all
They’ve forgotten sit quietly at desks
Waiting for class to begin. From time to
Time the janitor sweeps through.
He senses a presence that he believes
To be the lingering presence of girls
He nursed crushes on. Their summer freckles
Abiding into autumn, their blonde hair
Darkening through winter. There are faint words
On the green board, written by a man who
Knew the kids behind him weren’t paying
Attention, and didn’t much care, because
As he was talking about Manifest
Destiny he was thinking of the howls
Of wolves outside his cabin in the north
Woods of Minnesota. The janitor
Moves onto the labs with their deep stained sinks,
Formica counters, beakers and test tubes
Dim at the bottom with precipitants,
Piquant with the odor of chemicals.
He picks up a book on anatomy,
Lets his eyes fall on the illustrations,
Feels a thrill in remembering that all
This is contained within him — cathedrals
Of bones, forests of nerves, deltas of blood.
Two floors below him, in the front office,
The secretary is holding her breath
As she paints her nails with her weak hand.
The nurse has no one to nurse and, bored, takes
Her temperature herself. The principal
Is at her place on the lake, day drinking.
The gym is empty and bright, the new nets
Scrunched up like scrotums. A few kids linger
At the east entrance, waiting for their turn
To drive the instructor around the town.
They’ve been looking forward to being free
Of mothers, of older sisters who drive
Them disdainfully where they need to go.
Above it all hangs the bell, the same bell
That summoned and released students long gone.
Come fall it will ring again, and kids who
Have been given combinations will find
Something they thought would be locked is open.