An Assignment

I was twelve

I was in the classroom

but I was gone

At some point I had flown

past the playground bullies

and the senior queens

past cranky Mrs. Snook

and selfish tween dreams

I was in a realm

all my own

Where nothing really mattered

but everything was so very important

I would have sworn that

it was the birds

they carried my mind away

out of the muddy heat

out of my numb body

my numb body that moved

that recorded my daydream

my hands sung that day

they wrote it all

and I saw myself

so clearly

sitting there

not listening

it was beautiful

I was twelve