Poem: "Inferior Education"

Inferior Education 


Today, for the first time,
you struck your mother on the cheek.

     Yosano Akiko, “Auguste’s Single Strike”


Three things I was not taught as a child
but wish:

to strike my mother on the cheek
to contradict my teacher in public
to throw rocks at cops.

Now I am an indifferent citizen, keep-at-home critic,
afraid to go up against someone smarter.
I shout at my mother when she doesn’t come to the point,
striking her with words.

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