The Shallow Ends
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THEY CALL THE PAPER ITHACA CHILD

5/7/2020

 
                    by Sasha Ehrhardt

so imagine my sense of betrayal
when it turns out it’s a thing
for parents.  Someday I'll read it,
and be furious.  Or,

finding no reason, be disappointed.
Which is to say my mother teaches

kindergarten, and at a parent-teacher conference
she learns one boy has a story about school. 
 
At the start of the day
she lines us up and hits us with a stick.

Then we go to lunch.

Then we come back
and we do it all again.


My mother and the mother laugh.

Before he's in junior high,
some frightened, grown thing
that doesn't know
its own strength
will break him open.
 
No devil inside, like in the movies.
And won't they be disappointed?









​​


​Sasha Ehrhardt (they/them) currently lives in Boston.  Before that, they spent three years and some months running the Ithaca Area Poets Presents reading series and open mic, in Ithaca NY.  Their poetry has been published in the now-defunct Phantom Kangaroo, and their creative nonfiction has been published in Maps For Teeth.  They are currently studying library science.
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