The teacher

East of Houston
a teacher
her students

Many days she wonders
Sometimes she knows

Three dots tattooed
Between the thumb and first finger
She knows

One of her students broke a finger
It was black and blue, purple
so swollen

The teacher said to her,
Why don't you go to the doctor?
That must hurt . . .

Her beautiful student
with the loveliest dark eyes
framed by long eyelashes,
curly, curly hair
and a ready smile
said to her,
Miss, you don't know . . .
you don't know how it is
with us

Edgar was in the hall
laughing with his girlfriend
and talking to Jose
who said
My uncle has some of that stuff
it was in his car last night
we can get some tonight . . .

Jose and Edgar laughing, jovial,
always ready with a greeting for the teacher.
Today she knows
what tonight will be for the two boys

The teacher sits at her desk
in a school
just East of Houston.

She sees the large, round city,
a gray outline each morning
as she follows lines of other cars
going that way . . .

And knows that what is there
and East of there
and West and South
of the round, gray city
is a world filled with people
wanting to escape
and those people have children
who want to escape, too

But until they can,
she will teach them
from a book filled with stories.