Put on Your Best, Boys

From the September 2010 issue of The New Criterion:

"In-school suspension" by Ernest Hilbert

We sweated and dozed like barbarians

In a deer-hide tent at the height of spring's

Roasting heat, crowded in for various

Affronts, crimes, and faults. When one among us

Was handed, from the disciplinarian's

Office, a pink paper slip, listing things

He'd done that were deemed truly nefarious

(To us hilarious) and to say he was

Expelled altogether from school, he heaved

The heavy 1950s stapler from

Our minder's desk and hammered the paper

To his head. The first two staples rebounded

And clicked on the tiles. We were almost relieved

When the third clinched, pressed deeper by his thumb,

And seized Subcutaneous hold. This caper

Did it: We were, for once, astounded.

With the form draped over one eye, he smiled

For us, turning slowly in the humidity,

A satanic clown, our own Spartacus,

For a sparkling second we won't forget.

We roared and roared in our hot galley, piled

Up laughs till they hid any stab of pity.

We all knew he wouldn't even be missed

As, clutched by the wrist, he loosed one last threat

And was hauled from the room and the door boomed

Shut. We never saw him again. One by one,

We turned our faced downward and resumed,

With the dust he'd raised churning in the sun.

This issue has a really wonderful argument against building the GQ Mosque so close to the WTC site as well, in the Notes & Comments section. I highly recommend reading the three well-written pages.

My friend Ariel is currently down in Texas. She's working at a high school. This comes from her latest blog post and I thought it would be fun to see the results here too:

My last consideration for you, and for myself, is about a poem I came across while cleaning out some old folders in my office. They were stacks of poems written by seniors from the past three or four years. They were given the following format and asked to supply their own, personal answers. I'm working on my own and I would love to see what ya'll would write for yourselves. I challenge you to try it and share!

Biography of an Artist

First Name

Four traits that describe character (3 items)

Relative of_________________ (3 items or people(s))

Lover of __________________ (3 items)

Who feels _________________ (3 items)

Who needs ________________ (3 items)

Who fears _________________ (3 items)

Who gives _________________

Who would like to see_________

Resident of _________________

Last Name

Note: your answers can be in simple list format, or sentences with semicolons/commas 

Bona fortuna! I can't wait to read y'alls responses. :) 

Oh, and Ben- Vivian introduced this song to me:

You could always use a healthy dose of American anything, I am sure, while in Tours. I think the song's sound is just beautiful and if the lyrics were a literary genre, Southern Gothic. I don't even like country music in most circumstances, but I'm a big fan of the mandolin and their use of Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott" imagery.