field day

I used to love field days

We never went anywhere 

Just put our coats on and tromped 
orderly enough 
a couple blocks to the beach 
to inspect shit that had washed up. 
Teacher being randomly informative 

sometimes going on about crap
like clouds - even though these
were not sand, or waves, and in fact 
were visible from the school
and the whole way walking.

But I guess in these unstructured 
moments, the gears slip sometimes
a notch or two 

and you forget what you're here 
to teach the kids 
and you wonder what  

that dark twisty weird thing is 
this kid is showing you