Jeannine Stanko
USING CRAYONS

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He is the boy who always sits
     at the beginning of the alphabet      which he learns first
                                                                    like tying his shoes
                                                                   and counting fast

He wears ripped jeans       and
dirty flannels
                                               with
long greasy hair
      staining the collar

His fat, stubby fingers
tightly clench the       chunky, ROY G BIV
      crayons
                                               as he
rips off the labels       to caress
                                     the smooth wax
                                               then
rummages through the messy desk       that often keeps him from
                                                                        playing with the
                                                                        castle       in the back of the room.
Finding the      cool, cylindrical
      container,      like the ones with the blue lids
                                handed out by the nurse
                                    as we file one-by-one
                                    into the dim bathroom,

he peels off the      clear plastic
      lid,                      carefully placing it on
                                    the Formica desk.
He licks his      pale, thin
      lips
                and,
using the       red brick
      crayon       like a spoon,
eats a mouthful of       clumpy white
      paste.

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(c) 1999 Jeannine Stanko. All rights reserved.

Appears in Schools of Verse: An Anthology of Poetry About School, Fall 1999.