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1
He believed in me,
told the whole class
I was the best
writer in the school
and didn't need his course.
He
sent me into a vacant
classroom every morning
of 9th grade to write
"a teenage sports novel".
I failed: this was
pre-girl friend, I was
far too inhibited
to write the love scenes
all such novels needed.
2
She spoke about "the good life"
as she doused her hands each morning
with rose water from a bottle on her desk.
She lived that life. I didn't, but at least,
because of her, I knew
that such a thing existed!
One day she showed some eccentricity,
lecturing about "the terrible
American slang nowadays",
and using as examples
the words "boyfriend" and "date".
We gave each other funny looks—
those words weren't slang!
When we heard she'd waited years
for her lover to return from Korea,
and how he never did come home,
our feelings toward her softened.
3
She had the nerve
to ask me to copy
three sentences a day
from the blackboard
like the other, "b-track" kids,
and I defiantly refused,
my other English classes
having been all Honors ones,
but she just smiled
and at the end
of the semester,
gave me a 'B',
and won:
a 'B' in English
was an 'F'
for a coddled
kid like me.
copyright 2006 by Max Reif
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