For Children

Oliver Medlin

My Style

2018 5th & 6th Grade Poetry Honorable Mention

I walk into the classroom
It’s as if my legs were anvils.
I walk towards the teacher's desk.
I feel like the soldier steeling himself for war.
A war he knows he’s already lost.
Out of my bag I pull my poem.
The one I spent a whole hour on.
When I hand it over I sense it.
My poem is finished.
Not in a good way.
He scans over it quickly and says,
“Does it have an underlying meaning?”
“No.”
Then I’m bombarded by his views.
Apparently a poem is not good without one.
I vacate the classroom
And I end up as always in the stairwell.
I’m crying thick and fast
So I write and write
Until lying here is this poem.
My battle plan
The weapon of 2 days of pain
2 days of misery
2 days of work
The two days that changed
my life
Then I close my eyes
And fly.