Game of Numbers

What is there to be said about the men and women that speak,

Words to be heard and learned from - taken at face value,

From a position earned through study and discipline,

With hopes of planting a similar seed within,

You who work to earn - earn our attention and respect,

You whom I commend without hesitation or even thought,

A second thought might be asked from me as I speak - speak as you do,

As the issue you bring is not one to be taken lightly,

It is a plague - disease crawling atop the surface,

Which we have carried - bore among generations,

That chips away at us without even our notice,

We question it not - given it speaks only what we know,

What we have known,

A constant,

An obsession,

What I ask of you is to think,

To think - think and then speak,

Speak in kind to these thoughts and the weight they bear,

As the weight you bear,

Think of the obsession,

The addiction,

Numbers,

An issue we take at light,

Acting as a pedestal where it stands as a chain,

You praise us for rising above the rungs,

Trampling those that stood with us below,

And you deny us for falling - failing,

Placing labels that follow our numerations,

The zero - failures,

The nothings,

Never taking action and amounting to the number you place on them,

You say that they make no effort,

That they might not even try,

But do you ask yourself if you know them,

If they fit in the frame you wrap around their necks,

Not an image picture perfect,

Still the same with the hundreds - successes,

Idolized and pardoned,

Distorting themselves to fit within that same frame,

Bending at each turn and each snap,

Jumping at each holler and through each hoop,

Just to keep that number,

Fierce in desire - dog eat dog,

Pressure,

Pressure,

Pressure,

The pressure to have the number rise,

To keep it level,

To avoid the pitfalls that have taken your peers,

The pressure is greater than - greater than what?

And so the issue,

Numbers,

The issue sparks - lights and starts at priority,

What is prioritized by the obsession,

And what is neglected,

What is needed,

What you who speak must hear,

You teach,

You act as mentor so we might learn,

But obession has you act as judge,

As judge and jury to mark our living - to mark our dying,

You evaluate - the issue,

Your sole intention is not to teach,

But to judge,

To curb,

Then the goal is no longer to learn,

But to fit some standard,

To reach some number,

Our priorities shift,

The number is more important than the lesson,

The grade more important than the material,

Not because our values twist,

But because the values you assign tell volumes more than the words you speak,

The teacher does not teach the student,

The student does not learn,

The classroom breaks to a game,

A game of obsession - where cutting corners to win is as much the norm as earning,

A game of judgment,

A game of numbers.