Love for my Students

I want to scream in your face
and slap you silly.
Tape your eyelids open and yell
LOOK!

The world is alive
and broken
and at your fingertips
crying within your very heart and asking
to be held.

I want to smash your nose against
the glossy pages of our textbook
and tell you to smell-
Take a good whiff of your own battered humanity.
Taste the blood inside your mouth,
feel the iron shackles around your ankles.

You're bound to the grave already
if you refuse
to Look
and Listen
and Wake Up-

To be serious
about something.

Love for my students...
It looks like pulling my hair out
sleepless nights
endless lesson plans
ineffective conversations
about respect

something to do with Shakespeare
and Langston Hughes
exploding
off the timid white page,
still hot from the copier.