This is the student
This is the student.
This is the student
With scars on his arms.
This is the student
With scars on his arms
From the fires he lit.
This is the student
With scars on his arms
From the fires he lit
After dousing himself with gasoline.
This is the student
With scars on his arms
From the fires he lit
After dousing himself with gasoline
Because his voices told him to.
This is the student
With scars on his arms
From the fires he lit
After dousing himself with gasoline
Because his voices told him to
And because he listened to them before he took his meds.
This is the student
With scars on his arms
From the fires he lit
After dousing himself with gasoline
Because his voices told him to
And because he listened to them before he took his meds.
This is the student.
This is the student
In my classroom.
This is the student
In my classroom
At the residential school.
This is the student
In my classroom
At the residential school
For emotionally disturbed adolescents.
This is the student
In my classroom
At the residential school
For emotionally disturbed adolescents
Where the pain hangs like a cloud over the building.
This is the student
In my classroom
At the residential school
For emotionally disturbed adolescents
Where the pain hangs like a cloud over the building
And there are a hundred and fifty stories just like his.
This is the student
With scars on his arms
From the fires he lit
After dousing himself with gasoline
Because his voices told him to
And because he listened to them before he took his meds.
This is the student
In my classroom
At the residential school
For emotionally disturbed adolescents
Where the pain hangs like a cloud over the building
And there are a hundred and fifty stories just like his.
November 15, 2007 at 11:04 am
I want to credit two sources for the format of this poem. Most directly, this poem is inspired by a poem I recently read whose title and author I have forgotten. It is a poem about a younger poet visiting an older poet in a mental hospital. I took from this poem the sing-songy quality, the beginning with an incredibly simple sentence and then adding clause after clause in which all the important details unfold.
The second source, indirect source is nursery rhyme. The above mentioned poem seemed to be borrowing from atleast one, if not a handful, of rather sweet and innocent nursery ryhmes which build themselves up in exactly the same way. Again, I can’t cite titles, but somewhere, in my skull, the line “that Jack built” is echoing.
It’d be awesome if anybody with the titles I refer to would post them so I could give credit where credit is due.
November 15, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Powerful man. BTW, you did a great job last night!!!