School Scene

Plays well with others it says
hair pulling and teeth smashing
out the window replaced
downwind for annotation
we have to do this before eight
but the tables and chairs
do not carry themselves home
just visit us there in the headlight
before the press stopped coming
after the first day no one combed
their hair or chewed slowly
if they chewed at all but tonight.
Who will remember our birthday
out back on the launch pad
before it was over and the school
opened its mighty doors and corridors
to the sniffling congregation that chants
one two three and again.