March 2009 — Sentry

The teacher stands swaying at the front of the classroom. Many of the students think he must be drunk. His face is flushed, and his hands flutter like disoriented birds as he speaks in desperate tones about black holes, carnivores, ancient Babylon. But he isn’t drunk; he’s merely over-prepared. In the faculty lounge the older teachers laugh at his earnestness. They feel superior because he hasn’t realized yet that when he turns to write something on the board, the students vanish — true, some only momentarily, but others forever.

~*~
Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of six poetry chapbooks, most recently Tomorrowland (2008) from Achilles Chapbooks. He has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and twice for the Best of the Net anthology.