Look!

Look, look, look!

Beyond the grey walls

Monotone paint where the eye inevitably falls

Then to the red second hand

Dragged through molasses

Distraction a necessary contraband

Fingers drumming on a conformist desk

Rolling pencils back and forth

strings of words dripping steadily from open mouths

Rehearsed lines are given in steady time

And crawling languidly into unwelcoming ears

“Ring” goes the bell a buzz instead of a melody

And practiced hands stuff stiff binders in backpacks

And walk to another gray wall

Tick tick tick

Goes the clock, identical to the last

Yearning to rip off the glass

push the second hand faster

But instead, I watch

Tick tick tick

And my mind slips away

The threads of boredom woven into other worlds

Illegal worlds prohibited, imagination a crime

Flee to better places better times

School is just a production line

Perfect grey soldiers with test scores above

No. 2 pencil and test booklet ready

Why does walking feel so heavy

Next day next year everything the same

The tick tick tick of the clock

And the ringing buzz of the bell

Time kept in sync forever or never

Tick, Tick, Tick.