Distracted

This class is boring so my mind is touring

through the vacancy that lingers

inside the walls and all around me and

on the tops of heads—tips of fingers,

and weary eyes that teachers cannot see.

So I go to paper, and in a vapor

I realize the time has come to draw

a line across my note pad sheet

before my teacher sees his flaw and tells

the slouching to sit right in their seat.

And I spend the time drawing out this line

and watch it morph before my eyes

into a flying saucer sunny-side down

with little alien dudes from the skies

all added to the spacey background.

I draw a young man with a trash can

driving this rad car with big ass amps,

but then a giant tongue from the sky

flies down and licks his windshield damp

like he knows it’s just my stupid scifi.

I draw a streetlight shining at night

with this guy hanging on a curb

and wind-up teeth on a guitar chord

that plays behind a synthy blurb

before he rides off with the engines floored.

I filled the page with lines and rage

and now this great white shark

with a human leg locked in its jaw

and scribble in blood rushing out all dark—

when I closed my eyes, it’s what I saw.

I flip the sheet and draw some feet

from a guy crucified upside down—

“Mark,” the teacher calls me in my seat,

and I shake and dodge my eyes around.

The board’s equation don’t look easy!

NEXT

--Porter Daryl's Poems