Schoolhouse

The 7th grade teacher (who also taught 1st grade reading),
Scrubbing off my grafitti tatoos,
I watched her go here herself, grow up, come back, but when she was older
She was different, she used to sit under my awning, in the shade
Out back in the heat and I knew
She was dreaming of ice skating, tracing
Figure 8's with the end of her cigarette.

I always liked the winter too, the sheen the
Wet mittens and how the ground
Creeped up my sides.

Cody picked noisy fights outside &
Silent ones within, when he showed up, which was mostly
At night in through the gym window that never shut right.
He'd sit on the bleachers and smoke pot and sometimes
Shoot hoops by himself in the shade-light
Moon-lite echoes were his words and he filled up the space so that
I don't think he even missed the basketball team (he was on it until he
Got cut for not showing up). But some folks just seem to be
More present at night, day-ghosts.

The children were gone long before
I became a killer.
A beam in that same gymnasium
Fell, crashing in on a man so loud that
The crows flew out of the old school bus beside me
On cinderblocks.
It's good the twister took me; they would have razed me anyway.