A Frozen Sea

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I'd love to tell my teacher

about how all the things she's taught 

have fallen on deaf ears 

because our minds are all in knots 

 

And I'd love to tell my teacher

how the school he thinks he knows 

is the calm vision of a frozen sea 

with waters churning deep below

 

Because physics doesn't matter,

no not quarks or millibars,

when everyday the smartest girl in class

has new cuts along her arms

 

And no one weeps for Chaucer, 

for Woolf, Byron, or Joyce,

when bullies steal lunch money

because they've never had a choice

 

For who can think of geometry, 

of triangles or spheres,

while the boy who hides his bruises 

goes home each day in fear. 

 

And the homecoming queen smiles, 

she waves and adjusts her crown,

then once she's in the bathroom

she cries to hide her frown

 

The football captain plays along,

puts up his fragile front,

to afraid to tell his teammates,

the girls they dote on he can't want

 

All this I'd love to tell my teacher, 

but I dare shan't start, 

because after all I'll get detention

if they think I ever talk smart

 

So we bide are time and wait,

let old wounds heal and new cuts run,

because ice can only grow so thick

and Summer always comes.

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