In reply
To my question
As to why
She looked so
Haplessly glum in her
Third grade class photo,
My wife came back with
You can’t tell but
The skirt I was wearing
Was threadbare and torn,
And I was holding it so
The tear wouldn’t show,
The teacher smiling
In the middle of the back
Row was petty and mean
And struck us with an olive switch
He kept on his desk if we didn’t know
The answers to his questions;
He flunked me in the second,
Said more learning’s what I needed
To make the grade, you tell me now
How could I not hate him so?