Once When I Was in the Eighth Grade
by Maurice Kilwein Guevara

I got caught staring out the window when the bells were ringing
Maybe you want to tell everyone what's so interesting
There's a man with a bottle of wine walking toward the mill
He's wearing rags and the rags are burning blue
In one of his palsm there is a green bird
hatchling of the sewing box     breathes once
every time the earth walks around the sun     I hear her sing
before they used her soft green body in the mines

After that he let me stare out the window the rest of the year

"Once When I Was in the Eighth Grade" from Poems of the River Spirit, by Maurice Kilwein Guevara, (C) 1996

Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press