WALLY KEELER READS: "STONED IN COBOURG, AGAIN"

STONED IN COBOURG, AGAIN

2008 I occupied space
on Pizza Palace patio across from
Cobourg District Collegiate Institute, West
where 1966 I occupied space
in my grade 12 history class
chin cupped in hand
like a soft boiled egg
and nothing on the blackboard
worth deflecting my interest
away from the house fly
frantic for escape
out the window,
she sneaked up on me,
the teacher, I mean,
ambushed my pre occupation

“Well, Wally, it seems you’re not with us.
Are you stoned on something?”

. . .“Excuse me ma’m, I’m NOT on drugs;
. . .I’m on poetry.”
.
. . .So . . .
. . .against the advice of Guidance Counsellors
. . .I failed to graduate
. . .preferring the business
. . .of trafficking in poetry
. . .fool time
. . .permanent.