stream in the building
like a river’s flowing current.
drift through

eight periods.

no eye contact –
it might disrupt the process.
think in unison
but with no interaction:

that is the plan.

sit down, ready for class.
they pour words in our ears
filling our minds with
pythagorean theorem, the civil war,
the periodic table.

dilating our pupils
to see like them:
we swallow their knowledge,
opinions,
beliefs.

the bell rings
and we pour down the hallway:
a river of souls,
a sea of minds
thinking alike.

but
there is always that one.
that one
who
stands


out
who swims upstream

in a river of souls.