So here they come then, the kids, inching
back in for tests at first and then, swabbed
and approved to their seats and lives
and just picking them back up
it's been a lifetime, six lifetimes, eons, aeons
the width of history, the depth
of the world and yet here they are again
living proof of our huge success
helping us to believe in normality
votive learners
the Spanish lesson as religious ecstasy
scrambling the verbs in glossolalia
every geography project the milk of
amnesia, death tolls soothed
by ox-bow lakes, periglaciation
primary, secondary, tertiary succession
and we'll tell ourselves it's normal
for them, for us, and act surprised
at the failures and the tears, the friendships
that didn't survive Microsoft Teams
every verb forgotten, or equation
misunderstood, every yard of pace lost
overlooked, because despite the masks
and the fear: this is normal, it has to be
because if you can't believe
in the kids, then you can't believe
in anything, so wish them luck
send them in
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