"Learning Objectives: A Series of Poems to My Students"

1

Hey, you too cool for school fools and students caught in the fray everyday

Listen

there’s a lesson you’re missin’

It should be your mission to find your ignition and some ammunition for positive volition

Improve your condition

In addition, maybe end this endless rendition of self-imposed attrition.

Let’s move in position

Get used to the tradition and make it our own

But you can’t think with your mouth moving and your brain in your phone

Mental animals in digital cages

it’s outrageous and seemingly contagious and it just might enslave us

Your mind is prone to roam but you alone control the flow of thoughts in your dome

And you took the time to leave home

You take the time to show up

And we all know our chances to blow up

Let’s take some time to grow up

Life’s hard enough already and no one’s giving handouts

You don’t want to be the one always with your hand out

There is not a soul alive other than your mother who cares how you had it planned out

And Momma isn’t here to wipe your nose and wash your clothes

You alone control your actions and whether or not you gain any traction

I hear you talk about haters, yet you hand them shrink-wrapped satisfaction

If things aren’t going well, and you don’t know what else to do

the first place you should look is at you

At least lift your head up, learn something, and get a clue

2

I told you

Tried to embolden you

And not because I am beholden to you

But because we have work to do

And sometimes we’re serving up loss from the coin-toss

You see it costs to be the boss

And you aren’t paid up

I’m just being straight up

This isn’t made up

I tried to get it in your head when I said:

Making the grade

can mean the difference between making ends meet

making it work

like just another jerk

or making some pay

I know I’d rather not sweat a second shift until my neck is stiff

Rather be a success

than a hot mess

And if nothing else, you can hold your head high

Keep your pride and a strut in your stride

Feel good inside and enjoy the ride

Instead of trying to hide

Playing duck cover with the inevitable reality of responsibility

Hoping to get by is not a path to be on

And if I sound too get off my lawn

It’s just as likely that you’ve been playing a pawn all along

Just a background vocalist in your own dang song

But we can be better

Not just right now

but in ways that can last forever

And we can’t rest until our good is better

and our better best

Unless you’re ready to give in to this minor duress

And wait around for days more blessed?

I can guess that living with stress is at the bottom of your list

But if you don’t take your life in your fist

There’s things you can’t get back once they’re missed

Learning costs more and hurts more the older you get

There’s things you don’t consider the bolder you get

As you rollercoaster through your teens

Trying to figure out what it means

Worrying about who you are and trying to cope with inherited genes

At times just trying not to come apart at the seams

and reconcile reality with at least some of your precious dreams

But there’s hope where’s there’s precocious and spirited means

And you can bet

There’s things that I regret

Still paying my own debt

Yet seem to collect disrespect

Along with this paycheck

But when it comes to sweat

I’m a seasoned vet

Spent my time too, like many of you,

cold, tired, and wet

But I believe we can create the reperive that will relieve this source of stress for us

The only wheel that gets any grease is the one that makes a fuss

I hope you can see the real mess we’ve made

The less than ideal

at times unreal

place where we have stayed

Especially to those who believe it to be fine

What I propose is an easy trade

Students do work like it’s their job, so that I can get better at mine

You don’t really like school, well you’re not the first, so why don’t you just get in line.

3

Here I go another day
Here I am, I’m on my way
Already know what’s in store for my ass
Gonna go in, get ignored by my class
Once again, I feel like a fool
But then again, this isn’t a school
It may be
That you disagree
Entirely with me
But there are things that are true
When I tell you, this place is a zoo
When you complain that it’s all lame
And everyone, everywhere is all the same
You correctly place blame
But you misplace or really can’t face
The actual name of game
If this is a zoo instead of a school
Wouldn’t you want to make sure not to act like an animal
When you see fragile things, you’re not to run through like a cannonball

What I’m trying to say as I labor away
Is not that you need to be sure to savor the day
But if you must point fingers, make sure they’re always pointed at you
No matter who’s at fault, you choose, win or lose,

To deal with the mess

Or live with the stress
Like it or not, this life’s all you got

Might as well give it a shot

But it all falls down to you
So we can name names

and play lame blame games
Or grow up, get to work

Shed shame, regret, and feeling hollow
Be rid of the past and fear for tomorrow
Create something real that you made and didn’t borrow

Or give in to the moment because it feels better now
Then look back years later, head in your hands just wondering how
How in the hell did I let it all slip away
Here I go another day