Salt the Water by Candice Iloh EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author:Candice Iloh
- Language: English
- Genre:Teen & Young Adult Fiction on Prejudice
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
The problem with Mr. Schlauss
is that he ain’t got lips
so he stays mad at us
for what the universe wouldn’t give him
in a classroom full of
plump-lipped kids who always have
something smart to say
that’s what the principal keeps
calling it during our visits: smart
like it’s some type of surprise or insult
when i thought
that’s what everybody says
this place is for
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school is me doing the same thing every day
sitting face forward
at a gum-crusted desk
that’s covered in penis sketches
in a packed class
staring down the dry throat
of a person who’s been given
the right to tell me
what to do cause they went to college
stuck under the spell of
chalkboard screams or
a promethean board light or
dry-erase marker fumes
until the bell rings to interrupt
it all again
for the next
study in adulthood
i can tell
he’s not surviving his adulthood too well
i’ve never seen him without his morning Diet Coke
can smell the stale tinge of tobacco on his breath
even though i keep my distance
Mr. Schlauss takes another gulp
of the black stuff now caked into his teeth
releases a miserable sigh
says the same thing he’s been repeating for the last week
these tests are a game of decision-making
you don’t really have to be smart to pass
all you’ve got to do is know how to answer
the questions how to follow the rules
all you’ve got to have
is common sense
we’ve been going over this
study the instructions & you’ll be fine
i study his face wondering
if this is what he thought he’d be doing with his life in his early twenties
his unironed T.J. Maxx button up half tucked into his too-long khakis
his dusty blond shag a hopeful cover-up to the patchy stubble washing
over his blotchy puffed face
Iya taught me that a swollen face is a sign somebody drinks too much beer
drinks so much the alcohol don’t even move past your neck anymore
it just sits there for everybody to know what you spend most of your time
doing
trying to cope
with the fact that you’re stuck teaching in the Bronx postpandemic
when it really isn’t postpandemic but the teacher shortage
is so bad your bare minimum gets overlooked
while you stay flying under the radar
doing more harm than good
he gulps & goes on some more about
process of elimination
cause & effect
main idea
critical lens
my eyes scan
the prep packet
ingesting words like
knack
hoopla
burgeoning
valid interpretation
appropriate literary elements
Mr. Schlauss’s words
become a lowered hum
in my mind’s movie score
as it starts bursting questions
thoughts like how
don’t nobody i know
use these words & how
i wonder who decides what is valid appropriate
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