Grimm

I am nine running
Home for lunch on
The screened back
Porch with my sister
Sarah and brother
David as our mother
Reads Grimm’s fairy
Tales to us as we
Drink our chocolate
Milk eating our peanut
Butter and jelly sandwich.
We learn a sense of ethics
And idea of civics from
These lunches then run
Back to school to be
Bored by repetition and
A mindless set of rules
Designed to prepare us
To get to work on time
And not leave until time,
To line up in twos and
March so we can drive
Keeping between the lines.
We sit and listen to our
Mother read about right
And wrong in a world of
Make-believe where strange
Things are ordinary events,
Stalling our return to our
Elementary school jealous
David is not yet already in school
And will play and nap the
Long afternoon away while
We must study at school
In slow motion in lockstep.
My rebellion in the second
Grade will condemn me to
Repeat that grade in a
School much like the
One I left but with
More books to read.
I learn to read using
A narrative version
Of the Iliad and Odyssey
With wonderful pictures
Of swords spears armor
Shields and descriptions
Of combat tactics and
Strategy lessons I
Never forget and
Go on to read
Greek and Roman
Folk tales and
Later on
History.
But I
Always
Remember
And appreciate
Grimm’s fairy tales
My Mother read
To us at lunch
As we hung
On every
Word.