I have this one girl in one of my classes who’s awesome. She’s one of the sharpest students I’ve ever had as far as math. She’s funny, too, because she’s better at math than most of the people in the room. She’s got these big brown eyes that, even when I’m not talking to her, move along to wherever I go. At first, I thought it was another student crush; I’ve amassed a few of those in my early career.  But when I looked back at her, she didn’t try to look away. Today, I think I found the answer to why she does that.

“Student of the Month” © 2007 Jose Vilson

She’s a spitting image of the firecracker of a woman
I met at the parent-teacher conference
The woman a young, confident lady
My shoulder’s height and only a few years my senior
The little girl stands next to her parental unit
With a wide-eyed gaze
Amazed at the conversation her mother’s having with another man
Though professional, the girl rarely sees a man she cares about
Getting along with the woman in between us
Her stress undresses her oft-coarse hair
Her voice rests under her larynx,
A sign of restless nights
Often misinterpreted for a calm demeanor
Her solemn facial expressions yearn for a more similar
Childhood to the others in class
Intelligent, and fierce with the maths
September’s student of the month
October’s fall into deprivation, depression, and a series of little inner deaths
Her smiles are still authentic but seldom
25 sets of eyes look at me for knowledge
But only one of them glares and stares for life’s answers
Like why I’m one of the few males in her life she can rely on
Why that spark plug of a mother can’t instill some energy in her
Why her father and mother make her daydream of places where
Fathers and mothers can stay husbands and wives
Stay together long enough so she can catch the remaining years
Of innocent smiles and candy coated classrooms
Before she breaks into a world where this teacher and every teacher
Has to release her from this womb, too …

jose, who knows that everything he is not made him everything he is …