Rachel Yan (9) | STAFF REPORTER
You take a seat.
Phones away,
binders out
Droning voices,
scratching chalk
Seconds tick away
into nothing,
and nothing
Don’t tap your fingers,
too loud
Don’t tap your feet,
too noisy
You trace lazy doodles,
each line wandering with your mind
Don’t look at the clock;
it’ll only make it worse
Just wait
for the bell to ring
(For the bell to save you)
Tick, Tock,
goes the clock
Sneak a peek.
Has it moved?
No, it hasn’t,
at best it has moved backward
Why is it so slow?
Page after page of words:
Endless black lines,
curved and looped
A maze of dark tangled walls,
stretching into the distance
Every curve and point,
thorns and spikes
You read,
your eyes scanning furiously
Like a torn net,
your mind catches nothing
Look again,
and again
This maze of thorns,
prickly and sharp
Hides the meaning from you in its grasp,
as surely as it had hidden the sleeping beauty,
from her prince
Now, if only you had a sword
But you only have a stupid pencil
Voices around you,
buzzing in the background
Your mind is blank,
enveloped in the fuzzy blanket of sleep
Tucked in by the warm breeze,
cheek against the cool pillow of the desk
Just close your eyes for a second-
you’ll open them again
Your last thought is of witches and dragons…
“Wake Up!!”
