MAK COFER SEMBLANCE, SAVANNAH GREEN

School Dismissal in Elementary

With my hands splintered, half-baked below Vaseline, I steal tangerine smiles from the others.

Shimmering mothers pluck their warm heads, sheltering Them inside silver baked mini-vans like iridescent pearls.

Here, it’s burnt peach air–- and in my hands I have ruby Skin. no gloves, a rotten runny nose. terrible khakis

That run past the ankles— no winter coat or lunch box But electric goosebumps. sweating fists of Halloween’s candy

Flattened and glued inside— like brass and gleaming beetles below rocks. The kids are gone, I think I hear them ask—

Who is there to take you home?