[Newspoetry] JOE, please post ASAP!

[Paul Kotheimer]

For seven classroom days, I've been a sub
in Mrs. Campbell's kindergarten class.
We read.  We play.  They fight.  I intervene.
I wipe their noses when they're finished crying.
I hold their hands and walk them to the bus.

I come home tired and open up the _Trib'_.
The headline reads: "BOY, 6, ACCUSED IN KILLING."
--The dead girl's wide-eyed thin-line almost-grin.
(I know which words she might know how to spell.)
Moms praying, desperate, in the parking lot--

"...The victim had yelled at 'BOY, 6,' for spitting,
a classmate told Associated Press.
Authorities, though, claim it isn't true..."

It could so easily have been our school.

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