School's (nearly) out! Woo-hoo!

Daughter Anna and granddaughter Emma

 



by Pat Laster

SCHOOL DAZE

I.
Each day Home Ec teacher Miz Florence
would spew out her anger in torrents.
        "Stop talking and clean!"
        Girls glared at her--mean.
A dirty fridge was an abhorrence.

II.
A wild English teacher, Aegean,
attempted a task Herculean:
     "You'll write every day
     a good one-act play."
Her students became quite protean.

III.
World history was Miz Samples' thing--
The difference 'tween premier and king
        she carefully taught,
        but all was for naught.
Our ears only heard the bell ring!



SIGN ON TEACHER'S DOOR DURING PARENT CONFERENCES THE NIGHT BEFORE THE LAST DAY OF  TESTING

My psyche's fragile, weak and frail;
I'm resting for tomorrow's hail
of energy when testing's done
(they'll need some time to hit and run).

Two hundred kids: 'way, 'way too many--
my patience's fled--I haven't any.
So if you have a bone to pick,
please call tomorrow--tonight I'm sick.

[from Variations published 1994]

Haiku :End of school, Memorial and Decoration Days

the last bell rings
but nobody cheers . . . class
concert not finished
~
week before finals
uncharacteristic urge
toward spring cleaning
~
four days of school left
taking his trumpet case
but not his horn
~
the prom knight
and his lady
dressed in chain mail
~
teaching the lad
about Decoration Day
son spies a turtle
~
Memorial Day
her arms full of flags to place
near the headstones
~
butterfly alights
on the open haiku book~
Memorial Day

pat laster - c 2010 lovepat press