poem of the day 01.06.23

the truant


there’s a kid
who comes in here almost daily
when he should be in school

he sits at the computers
and plays assassin and sharpshooter games
alone for hours on end

this institution thinks it’s doing something good
providing free computer access to kids

but all they do is play these murder games

kill! kill! kill!
the kids shout all afternoon

everybody here wonders
what we should do about this particular kid

the truant

should we get his name and call his parents
call the school
call the cops

but he’s in here every single day
it’s obvious that his parents and the school don’t care

this kid personifies systematic failure
all the way around

and parents and schools
can feel like cops, like jail too

to be honest,
this kid is not really my problem

everybody here says,
maybe we should shut his computer off

kick him out
until the other kids come in after school

but that’s not a solution either
it’s spiteful and petty

and despite the crazies in here
who talk to themselves
or lock themselves in the bathrooms
for hours on end

the kid is probably safer in here
than he would be on the street

the answer is there is no answer

the vanguards of democracy
have let us all down on this one

i’m just glad the kid is quiet
that he tries to be circumspect

he sits at his computer
hunched in real close and tapping the mouse

killing this and killing that
all morning and into the afternoon

until all of the other kids come in here to join him

and it gets noisy
and it gets violently loud

the truant fades into the din
of the mass, adolescent computer killing machine

just another cog in the system
which is what they really want

which is what we’ll get.