so we tell ourselves
students with mushy minds
need convolutions
it’s in their natures
to seek that something greater,
human, sleek, abstract
but that’s not true in the least
frightened, they want us
to fill their heads with
lustrous affirmations
that their lives won’t fatigue them
we walk around prideful that
we only offered questions,
pried the lids off of young minds,
poured in all kinds of poison,
and showed them a wider world
at night, we berate ourselves
and think of the immorality
of ruining their chances
to become happy spaces
into which we pour ciphers
