Wake up at 5AM. Get dressed. Eat something.

I’m sure this sounds familiar already.

7AM and classes have started

with the chattering of my peers and the clicking of pens too colorful for our assignments.

Classmates start to snicker as I sit quietly in my own world of wonder and content. The content of the lesson almost evades me.

9:30AM and the taunting has started. “Ignore them and they’ll stop.”

There’s a reason why children call this place a prison.

“The weird one.” “The quiet one.” “The crazy one.”

The alarms were going off in my head.

This classroom has more people than I remember; it’s far too crowded

Far too crowded, far too crowded and my head feels so empty.

Noon and it’s lunchtime. They children are getting louder.

He kept bothering me. It’s hard to ignore a shark that’s chewing on your will to live.

I became the bad guy. First, a warning, then, a lit match.

It could have been prevented if I didn’t feel like the only way out

was to burn everything out of the way.

You told me not to fight, to know my place. You told me to talk to hungry predator while it feasted on my skull.

And you punished me for not being eaten.

Your scolding was wasted on the victim, while the culprit ran laughing into the next lesson plan.

I didn't plan on being disobedient. I never wanted to hurt anyone.

So I was I left with scars that have yet to heal

and drown out the sounds I wish I could hear

instead of a hungry shark.