Say their names—
The students’ names—
Firstly—
Loud and proud and hair a-blaze!

Think defense
In eloquence, and

Monday morning stuff.
Windows filled with gray,
Bluffing like a prison guard to them—
Missing something, say?

Say their names
In your head now, too—
Frequently, if not for them
Then for you—

Design your day.

Happy lives the brick layer,
Woefully that scanning, close-by cousin—
Sun-lit paths and 
Subjects of a play present,
Rolling ‘round in green and sun-lit colors—

Stay—

Like a singer I’ve become—

Having neither grift nor mastery
All in sum.
Saying names to hear their
Music on a beating drum

Before they drift away.