To know or not to know that is the question. I mean; I already know, I took it once. Yet that once was back before the continuous onset of diarrhea (which could have been caused by the accidental switch up of my stir fry or the unending pastries I filled myself with), before the sniffles and the sneezes (caused by the cold wearing a too thin jacket to the gym), before the exhaustion (wack sleep schedule). I knew before all of that. And even then, that know was a rapid test (but still a test) which could’ve been wrong. So, should I? Should I take it again? Or should I go about my day, and attend dance practice with none the wiser?

…still there? Hey, where’s she gone?

Oh, she’s at dance practice.

The hallways are so crowded
With students like a school of fish
The Endless Sea of Knowledge

So easy to get swept away
Far from where you want to be
Your locker, your class, your connection of P.E.
The Endless Sea of Knowledge

The students absorb their studies,
Like a sponge from the sea
The Endless Sea of Knowledge

Knowledge is the key
To life above the sea
Out in the real world
Where we'll eventually be
So use your time wisely
While here in...
The Endless Sea of Knowledge

haiku 20/11/3f

i am not teacher
you are not ignorant mind
you create meaning

A wall of Jacobean era lattice-windows
line my dorm room - my private eyes.

How many freshmen have watched
the gilt harvest moon from this seat?

I keep them open, for cool breezes,
and the comforting the sounds of life,
in overworked, needy moments.

I wrote a poem long ago
As an assignment for class
It was the first I was proud of
That feeling didn't last
It captured something
That rarely I'd place
An ever-present
Mask on my face
It was written there
Now lost forever
A truth I knew
Would bring me no pleasure
Titled "Masquerade"
I thought that was clever
Even used three words
To put rhyme to those letters
It was whole and it was tragic
Though I wrote it stone-faced
Turned it in, to the teacher
With no smile or grace
That page was Rumplestiltskin
Its lines gave form
To thoughts never shared
Within my brain's storm
The poem was an answer
From the hand that wrote it
To a baffled 12-year-old
Who couldn't control it
She gave it back to me
Along with an A
That I stuffed in my pack
And lost the same day

lofi hip hop decorates my brain
notebook formulaic and profane
anxiety seeps my malleable mind
latching onto anything it finds.

If I were the principle of my school
I would bring some changes to the rules
A school where every child can dare
To think freely and be their true selves

I would give the a problem to solve
By themselves.A chance to evolve
To grow., with all the senses involved

I don't want parrots belching memorized words
Students aren't sheep, teachers aren't shepherds
I would want them to live in an open world
Where they can question everything under the Sun

Bookish knowledge is not all
There's more to life than Newton's laws
We are artists, us human not robots
Scientist, philosophers, why should we be restricted to some selected thoughts

I would want basic life skills
To be taught to every pupil
So that when they leave these gates
They aren't left confused and dazed

We must teach them empathy
Theory gives way to practicality
So that when they got no help
They can think for themselves

Don't sacrifice the individual
At the altar of peer-pressure
These would be my principles
If I were my school's principal.

Sitting there, heart racing, time ticking,
You try to remember, but you just can't.
Everything you spent your night trying to memorize
Seems to be erased from memory,
Palms start sweating, hands start shaking,
You can’t make out the words typed
Boldly onto the paper,
Everything is becoming blurry,
You keep trying to replay last night
In your mind so you might
Be able to get a couple right,
But instead you are faced with only
Half a memory,
The answers are covered with blanks,
You can’t remember.
It is time to accept the destined fate.
A student’s living nightmare
Is not getting a passing grade.