Scott Simpson · Poetry
After the Meeting
Use For Kindling · source pages 71, 72
All poetryThe original line breaks, stanza spacing, and placement are preserved. Long lines scroll horizontally.
Source page 71
After the Meeting
The bell rings and I am
not ready to face my students.
A storm still whirls
inside, shrapnel from a
meeting where trust cracked
like thin ice.
I say, I'm fine. I say,
Everything’s great.
But they know.
They see it in the way
my hands forget the rhythm
of teaching, the way my voice
Source page 72
is a borrowed thing,
tight at the edges.
They know I am
pretending, and it makes
the room colder.
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