Lesson Plan
by
Michael T. Young
A gun came to school
and taught the children how to think.
It blew their minds
and tested them
on how to take a last breath.
It sent home lessons
to parents on loss and pain.
A gun came to school
to speak and tell the teachers
how to teach and how to hide
and how to take a shot.
There’s always someone
who doesn’t try, who won’t
put in the time to learn,
who won’t listen or do the homework.
But a gun is dedicated;
it aims to come to school every day,
it will instruct us all.
There is so much to learn:
fire drills, duck and cover.
A gun will lay down the law
even if it kills us.
***
Michael T. Young has published three collections of poetry: Transcriptions of Daylight, Because the Wind Has Questions and, most recently, Living in the Counterpoint. He received a fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and was twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He received a Chaffin Poetry Award and was runner-up for a William Stafford Award. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous print and online journals including Coe Review, Fogged Clarity, Iodine Poetry Journal, The Potomac Review, and The Raintown Review. His work is also in the anthologies Phoenix Rising, Chance of a Ghost, and In the Black/In the Red. It is also forthcoming in Rabbit Ears: TV Poems. He lives with his wife and children in Jersey City, New Jersey.
As It Ought To Be 