Wednesday, July 21, 2010

One Shot Wednesday - School Lessons


School Lessons

That brash New Girl.
I let her see my paper.
She copied all those
100% correct answers.
And then…
She cracked, confessed
and threw me under the bus
(not that we knew what that was then).
Protecting her, my 6th grade self said,
"No ma'am I didn't cheat,"
and made a Zero.
So now I hoard my knowledge
like my mother did with
her minutes of my time.


This poem is part of One Stop Poetry's One Shot Wednesday poetry gathering, where all poets are welcome to share. Make the rounds – it will no doubt be fascinating!

18 comments:

  1. oh that last line is a gut punch...tight write...sorry. thanks for linking up with oneshot!

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  2. i enjoyed this and the turn at the end..although we dont like to admit it i beat a lot of people secretly understood that!!! cheers for taking part in One Shot...Pete

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  3. Dear The Bug,
    Another true story in concentrated language, and as your other commenters said--a twist of the gut at the end.

    I love this.
    Ann T.

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  4. It's easy to picture your writing. The end was unexpected. Enjoyed reading it. Well done :)

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  5. that last line..everything in life always go back to mother....great punch line...bkm

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  6. It's so cool when you can do so much with so few words. Brava!

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  7. This one seems to have come from actual experience rather than imagination - probably why it reads so well. The last bit is especially telling, in more ways than one.


    WORD VERIFICATION: mitintia
    MEANING: a very tiny army

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  8. Thanks everyone. This is a true story - I was so mad at the time! But I learned a valuable lesson about cheating :)

    Now that she's gone I find myself wanting to give my mom all the time she wants with me. In reality I know we'd go right back to push me/pull you territory.

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  9. aha..nice one! i love to strike at the end too,great piece..:)

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  10. oh man! that stinks! i am such a nerd, i never cheated, ever, not giving out answers or copying them. a lot of my students try to cheat these days -- nuts! what is even worse is, their parents almost encourage it because it is anything to get an A!

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  11. Oh I love it when a poem takes a leap!

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  12. Ha - I love it the realities of life.

    Oh those memories if we could go back.

    Thanks for the look into you

    Glad you joined us for One Shot Wednesday

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. my mother taught me
    not to lie
    but never believed me
    when I told the truth
    She taught me to share
    but keep the good things
    for herself
    My mother told me she
    would treat us kids equal
    but bought them a car
    and me a bicycle
    She said it was only fair
    That I worked and payee
    My fair share
    but the others were on
    hard times you see
    and she would take
    all my money from me
    So I moved out
    and no more did I give
    She said I was her
    Most ungrateful kid

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  15. Great pome! Very unusual direction in the end.

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  16. Nice piece, thank you for sharing!

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  17. Gosh, did this bring back memories.
    Such a super poem both in the opening and in the twist.

    When I was about 8 I gave a broken plastic pencil sharpener to ROBERT HAYNE.
    A few days later someone scratched stars on the teacher's RV in the playground.
    They found the sharp plastic thing and said it was me. It was not me
    but I NEVER said who it was.
    If I had done it I would have said so. My mother impressed on me that LYING was the very WORST thing!!!

    weird how these things stick in your mind.

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