Tenth grade teacher, a Mr. Suchandso
slashed a C minus across her very first poem

ashamed to be qualified as less than mediocre
it was many years before she dared compose another

and, indeed, may never have
(a loss the world might long regret)

but for an insistent voice within her that
refused to succumb to

the unwitting cruelty of a witless pedagogue
who should have known better.


(Previously published in Spilled Ink, July 2000; Stroll of Poets Society, July 2000)

Laurence Overmire

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/poisoned-apples/