poem
Volume 33, Number 1

back in the day

students say ‘back in the day’
as if they fondly remember
what their parents experienced

as if they regret not getting the chance
to have half the lens of their glasses
frosted to cure ‘lazy eye’

or attending school with their ears
taped to their head to fix their prominence
regardless of the interference
with hearing lessons

as if they long to have a broomstick
bound to their back to repair their
posture

and to have their hands smashed 
with the cutting edge of a wooden ruler
to prevent the crime of being
left-handed

let us praise the past
for its extinction, and move
forward to a more tolerant time


—Herb Kauderer