A Poem Dedicated to All Teachers: Paladin – For every teacher

Not by might nor by power
– Zachariah 4:8

The children listen in a primary grade-attentive fashion
to their favorite story I Am Enough by Grace Beyers. One blond
boy on his tummy, waving his arms up and down, pretends to be an airplane.
A girl with an Afro focuses on my read-aloud as if her life
depends on it. The sun glows in flashing flames through the top windows.
Two gap-toothed boys smack each other just because…


A gun! must be a toy such a big boy Herold should be on his square on the carpet why is he standing and staring


“Herold, No toys allowed at school. Please give me that water gun immediately and sit down now!”


The husky boy raises both hands;
he points the gun at me.
I simply glare at Herold with my teacher eyes.
His stance is steady and ready. His classmates start to squirm
and some sob as fear strikes. He shoots the pistol.
Deafeningly, a boom follows as if a pyrotechnic barrage.
I try to halt the bullet. The children shriek!
My right hand and chest above my heart spout blood-red.
While attempting genial but with a grimace,
I instruct my students it is like a fire drill.


“Follow me with your partner buddies to the playing field.”


They pair up and we go out the back door.
Though he stumbled rearward with the recoil,
Herold still stands with his finger on the trigger.


I finally got even with the witch she left me behind I am just like the bad guys on TV the gun is the same as one of them had Mommy bought ours for protection after target practice at the gun range Daddy always reminds her to put the safety on I like playing good guy/bad guy in my room when Mommy’s busy I play with her gun I know where the gun box is under their bed
Mommy forgets to lock it most of the time


Ryfkah

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Ryfkah
Guest Author

Bio

Transplanted from Chicago to Los Angeles, Ryfkah’s poetry has been published extensively in the United States and abroad. The first published poem came about by being awakened from a dream in which God speaks the poem to her and then tells her to get up and go write it down. The first chapbook of her poems was If Venus Had Arms, published by the North Orange County Poetry Continuum. A special honor was being included in Voices, a literary journal in Israel. Her poetry was published in many of the issues of the San Gabriel Poetry Quarterly. Her verse also appeared in such diverse journals as I Love Your Poetry from Palabraproductions and Echoes Rewoven, a poetic dialogue, from HazenStearnsPress. Recently, her poem Love Thy Neighbor was awarded first place from Poets for Human Rights. Currently, she is preparing an anthology of poems that focuses on women’s voices in the Bible.