| For The Benefit Of The Angry Boy In
The Alternative School, The Young Lady Student Emphasizes The Importance
Of Listening Skills, Over The Objections & Admonitions Of The First
Year Teacher
A one page poem/play by Frank Van Zant A classroom in medias res, sunshiny surreal,
smileyface teacher at
Young Lady: This man, he’s try’n’a
help you, but you’re just brickhead
At this the Boy is smiling with aggressive
anger,
Young Lady: You think you’re badass like
you got something smooth goin’
Now the Boy is crazed, still silent in
a dumb show, but using obscene
Now the Teacher enters lights motioning
with frantic/silent calls for
Both students face each other squarely,
Young Lady: Don’t you be tellin’
me to suck on your nuts, ‘cause I got
Teacher finally intercedes, and students
eye each other, coming to a
Teacher: How do we get to Hamlet
from here?
|
| Frank Van Zant is an award-winning teacher of near-dropouts, the new poetry editor of Sport Literate, and the father of three. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a semi-finalist at Discovery/The Nation,. His first book, The Lives of the Two-Headed Baseball Siren is published by Kings Estate Press. A second book , Climbing Daddy Mountain is available from Pudding House Publications. He can be reached at: veezee@staffordnet.com |
| See the Past Performers page for more of Frank Van Zant's work |