Lesson Plan: Grammar



          I should write about not writing

          I should write down what containment is like,

          stuffing myself into a baggie, making myself small enough

          to be eaten as a bedtime snack.

          I should give myself permission to take a day off

          walk without purpose, splash in puddles, breathe too slowly,

          instead of grading myself on a rubric.

          Dear Students,

          I can teach you about MLA format, transitive

          and intransitive verbs, passive vs. active voice,

          homophones, six traits, dramatic verbal situational irony,

          character tone theme plot setting point-of-view

          But I cannot red pen the blank page

          teach you to unravel your decisions

          suggest an ending

          or request an alternative god.

          I could make myself a metaphor (extended of course)

          for what's wrong with education today

          but I'm more like a simile, analogy maybe

          as moonlight is to bloodstained carpet.

          Despite the detailed lesson plan (deviation is inevitable)

          I am still unsure where subject and verb find agreement.

          Maybe it's all in the linking, have, has, be

          where I become a conduit, third-person and past tense.
 



                                                                                                            Kathleen Crocker