“Please Leave On” by Dawn Macdonald
Dawn Macdonald lives in Canada’s Yukon Territory, where she was raised off the grid. Her poetry appears in journals ranging from Asimov’s Science Fiction to Vallum, and has been nominated for a Pushcart prize. Her first book, Northerny, is forthcoming from the University of Alberta Press.
Author Foreword:
This poem conflates some different eras of my schooling in northern Canada in the 1980s and 90s. The recent memory of corporal punishment lingered over the elementary grades. The teacher-student relationship was in high school. We all knew about it, but didn't understand that it was criminal as well as "gross." The teacher, now retired, was finally tried and convicted just this past year. Reading the news coverage brought up memories of his class, and its treatment of "current events."
In school in 1989
at 3 p.m. the teachers all
wrote “P.L.O.”
in the chalkboard’s corners
and we said, “That means
Palestine Liberation Organization,”
because we knew so much.
Our wisdom was the kind
that’s learned in Current Events.
Current Events was the first five
minutes of Social Studies
class and the Social Studies
teacher was known to be dating a student.
We all said, “That’s gross.”
We got in trouble for looking
out the window and for reading
unassigned texts. We said,
“You’ll get the strap,” and,
“Nuh, they outlawed corporal
punishment,” and, “I heard one kid
still got it.”
We got seated separately
from our friends and found ways
to exchange notes. The sky
was so full of ice, it fell apart.
We lost heat from our heads.
We knew several facts, and whether
to repeat them. They had us set
for life.
