Did you learn your lesson

Did you learn your lesson

he had

but he grew up in the heyday of Chicagos Public School system when its education was 

highly touted and well deserved  when its educational prowess was muscled and paired 

with corporal punishment  

                                            affirmed and allowed by educators and the respective 

neighborhoods parentage

right

go right ahead

dont learn your lesson  

then show up at school at your own risk                                                                                   

risk  not being called on

because when you were called on

& it wasnt necessarily because you gave the wrong answer   a probability always exists 

that you might have erred  misunderstood either the content or context of your lesson

                                                                                       because when you were called on 

& clueless

                  

                  well  then the teacher elaborated on the lackluster extent of your cluelessness 

and thereby   exhausted   evaporated   any chance that you might have possibly 

misunderstood the lesson . . . they dragged you question by relentless question into the harsh 

glaring light of your duncery . . . obviously  being made an example . . . before all your 

attentive classmates who couldnt turn away or shun their eyes even if they wanted

in latter years corporal punishment has been described as shaming

                                                                                                               & shaming a child 

is reprehensible . . . it deleteriously affects their confidence . . . their precious . . . their so 

very fragile self-esteem

after the withering appraisal of your failed lesson you were asked to stand and walk

to the front of the classroom

the cane or whatever was at hand was used liberally

you could almost hear in their breathlessness a Biblical measure  Spare the rod  Spoil 

the child

no spoiled children ever passed out through the heavy oak doubledoors of Norwood Park Elementary School

& because there is no brook for mistake

as children  we were very aware of the risk we ran if we chose not to learn our lesson

reprehensible                                                                                                                                 

is an adult whose childhoods fragile self-esteem provided for their abject illiteracy

0215,  Sunday,  2  3. 14

Faulkner

always faulknering it up!

but to confess he loved his quote: “Between grief and nothing, I will take grief.”

                                           because the sterile voice inside his head too  -  refused grief

he would take nothing       breathlessly

grief is a compromise  an anguish which ofttimes we cannot change

                                                                                         and if it cannot be changed    

                                                                                              

                                                                                             it is utterly beyond us

it is no thing    anguish is a waste of time

time lost that might otherwise be fruitful  or seeded

not ceded

            

             or sterile

                       

                       vaporous   moving among and around ones spastic numb lost fingers 

which is ugly to witness 

                                         to be helpless to help  

time  is a tourniquet

a compress  a poultice hoping to prevail 

                                                                     prevail  that the infection is staunched       

and wont spread black lines firing up veins like smouldering contrails of deadly missiles

1233,  Monday,  29  7. 13

Is your bed made?

--  Is your bed made?

I am quite certain I am not the only child who has ever cringed                                   

hearing those words

realizing that a lousy bed stood between them  and the great outdoors  and playmates

for it my bed is made every fucking morning

diligently

sharply

when the sunlight comes through my bedroom window and strikes it it looks like a fresh cut 

piece of immaculate cake

that may not sound like much

or something to brag about

dull and unimpressive

but

returning home for a nightcap at the end of a date

the bathroom is through the bedroom

my dates have never failed to remark how beautiful the bed ah er   bedroom is

how crisp and clean looking

how inviting

its attractive scent

that made bed

has made more women than you can shake a . . . oh hell lets be honest . . . than you 

can shake a dick at

I am thoroughly confident

when I was a boy and my mother chided me

--  Is your bed made?

she never had a clue to its long term benefits

she never meant it

or imagined making my bed carnally

nope  old eyesinthebackofherhead

never saw that coming

1604,  Thursday,  27  2. 14