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Chelle Miko has published in 32 Poems Magazine, The North American Review, Poet Lore, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Nimrod, Eclectica, North Dakota Quarterly, The Paumanok Review, Rhino, the anthology Red, White, & Blues: Poetic Vistas on the Promise of America, The Mid-America Poetry Review, The Comstock Review, Snow Monkey, 13th Moon, Swink, and others. She resides in Finger Lakes region of NY. |
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Published Spring 2006
 
Happy Hour at the After School Program
Outside my office door, the kid paces like a man,
frets and stalks the big hand
to an hour. My body language listens
to the new teacher with the absurd little smile
who's testing me with a clever reply: I use
positive reinforcement; but my eye is locked
on the cabinet and a list I can't erase. I once cased
the clock like this, after a doctor with plenty
of degrees nailed to the wall ripped open
my spine and stapled it shut. I begged
for a shot until some bitchy nurse gave in. For days.
I craved a liquid song called morphine. When it wasn't
singing my veins, it made name every second
that blocked its beautiful hum from my blood.
The new teacher's not yet at a loss
for the how in an interview, hasn't learned her part
in the unspoken art of supply and the chaos
of demand. I hear the shuffle of shoes near
the door until I can't take it anymore. I staple
her application, stamp Hired, and she thanks me
for the "opportunity," then makes her way to the exit
sign. In a mean moment of silence
between me and the boy, I hold the pill at bay,
and I'm someone, then I hand the kid the Ritalin
that stops his pacing, rids him
of his craving, and makes someone else's day
more agreeable. He's gone before I've scribbled
my initials on his chart. I walk the halls,
throw open doors, and record head counts
on a clipboard. Outside,
behind a van, I push up my sleeve
and rip the patch from my arm, then tick
off the minutes 'till six, and think, Now
they can't stand him. Then I light a match
that can't choke this appetite. There's never a break
long enough to kill the stench
of smoke on my clothes.
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MR BOOKS
Critics at Work
ed. Jeffrey J. Williams.
Critics at Work offers a guided tour through the central, sometimes confusing and frequently controversial developments in contemporary literary and cultural criticism. The tour guides, however, are not distant observers but have been primary participants in those developments, and they report on theory, cultural studies, the literary canon, the recent focus on race, sexuality, and other identities, the state of the univerisity, and the role of the intellectual. Throughout, they consider the not always easy negotiation of politics and culture.
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