"A Novel in Seventh Grade"
They turn the book over
in their hands
read the back
flip through the stiff pages
wondering what is inside,
dreading,
silently cursing me
They calculate
on their smart phones
how long it will take to read --
maybe two minutes per page
nearly three hundred pages
six hundred minutes
TEN HOURS, perhaps
They set their jaws tight
and roll their eyes
when they think
I’m not looking
“This is so lame!”
They struggle
like travelers
acclimating to a foreign country
weary of new characters
suspicious of unknown words
through the first thirty pages or so
As days pass
pages turn more quickly and
they stretch out on the classroom floor
sinewy limbs everywhere,
they curl up in corners between bookshelves,
read a chapter over chicken nuggets
in the lunch room
and between equations in math.
Finally they turn the last page
and close the book
then they turn it over in their hands,
wondering,
thinking
that wasn’t so bad.
that wasn’t so bad.
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