My middle school history teacher Made me stay after school one day "Look, your essay is alright, but I know you ******* it. Your a good writer, so your gonna stay and rewrite the whole thing." I didn't care about school or writing But I thought, ****, maybe I'm good At this Then I got into high school And the entire freshman class Had to enter an essay contest "How the Civil Rights movement still influences us today" I remember the teacher was a Real stuck up ***** I wasn't interested in her class I hardly showed up And she wasn't interested in me But I showed up for the announcement of the winner All the kids were excited "And the winner is...Raymond Suarez" she read it like a guilty verdict "Who's that?" A pale blond asked "Him" the teacher pointed at me The excitement in the room hit the pavement hard I wasn't smiling but I was "There will be a banquet with the other state winners to see if you won the state finals. I'll give you the information in a few days" "OK" She never did... Then I ran into that middle school history teacher again We exchanged phone numbers and he called me that night "Ray...I gotta tell you something... I'm gay" "ok..." Then he called me a few nights later I was drunk and he wanted me to come over alone "Nah, I'm gonna stay drinkin with Andy" "Come on, just come over, I got beer and food, I'll pay for the taxi to drop Andy off and bring you here, what are ya, chickenshit? Your ****** chickenshit man" he said in his sloppy Texan drawl "Nah" I opened another beer And wondered if he ever really thought my writing Was any good Then I guzzled that cold crisp beer Down And that took care of that thought And all the rest