2013 MONTGOMERY COUNTY
YOUTH POETRY CONTEST

10-12 GRADE WINNER

Haley Gordon
Cheltenham High School

Last Period of the Day (in May)

that antsy feeling in your forearms that makes you hug yourself violently and you have to bite your lip because you can't scream but outside it's sunny and warm and you are trapped inside and that person (that one person you hate) raises her hand three thousand times and says nothing that you can understand, but squawks as if asking for a slap in a rare bird language and you can't give her what she must be asking for because an in-school would probably be worse than sitting here but only probably and that teacher makes the joke he made on the first day of school and the second and fifth and twenty ninth and forty second and you don't even groan because expending that much energy risks you dissolving into a pool of drool and sweat and angst which would be unfair to the janitors and ultimately make walking to your locker take even longer than usual and that clock is almost definitely most likely five minutes slow and you can't verify that with your phone because four people have been scolded already and there's no defense when you've heard four people get scolded meaning you have to sit and stare as the second hand stares back unmoving obviously just to spite you and now even though the teacher is looking for volunteers you can't look away because then it wins so you get called on, and you lose the contest only to say that you didn't hear what the question was and would he repeat it but of course that only brings on another lecture on the importance of attention even though he "understands" that it's the last period of a beautiful day in May.