Fifth Grade: October 22,1985 Poem by Alana Krueger
Fifth Grade: October 22,1985
in fifth grade
my teacher said
i talked too much
she used shears
and a metal spool
of extra-wide adhesive tape
to shut my mouth
zzzzip, snip...
zzzzip, snip...
zzzzip, snip...
zzzzip, snip...
zzzzip, snip...
zzzzzzip, snip...
zzzzip, snip...
in a crazy quilt of adhesive silence
that morning, other kids
looked
smirked
giggled
stared
and asked me questions
as i sat there mute
dumb, an unanswering mummy
that noon, mouthless
i couldn't eat lunch
i was a girl with no mouth
no mouth, no talking
no mouth, no lunch
that afternoon, another teacher
came to our room
to borrow some chalk
she saw my face
she stared and stared at me
but not a word to my teacher
about me or my condition
after school, in detention
the tape burned
as it finally came off
in the girls bathroom mirror
i stared at my own face
a network of red tape mark lines
my skin a map of martian canals
and grey adhesive stickum bits
that wouldn't come off
no matter how i scrubbed
at home, my mother noticed
the rubbery grey bits on my face
(the red had faded)
and i had to explain
how my teacher silenced me
with adhesive tape
but my mom interrupted:
'well, you probably had it coming! '
in my room, i cried and cried
silenced twice
in a single day
Courtesy of my diary, here are the dates (1985-86) she taped my mouth shut: Oct 22, Nov 13, Nov 21, Dec 11, Jan 7, Jan 16, Jan 30-31, Feb 11, Feb 14, Feb 24, Mar 3, Mar 10, Mar 13, Mar 19-21, Apr 1, Apr 4, Apr 7-11, Apr 16, Apr 21, Apr 24-25, Apr 29, May 2, May 7-Jun 10.
That's a total of 54 days in fifth grade that I spent the entire school day with my mouth taped shut. Including all day every day for the last five weeks of the school year, May 7 through June 10. Guinness record, do you suppose?
I plan to share this with others here. thanks. and i thought i was mistreated (mildly) by a few teachers! ! ! bri ;)
My god! ! ! ! Poor kid! ! ! One of you (you or teacher) must have been a.........words fail me, though comes to mind.
Your teacher kept you taped up the last 5 weeks of the year? ? ? Oh how awful! !
Yes Kate, things had been escalating between us for some time. Finally she resorted to the nuclear option: mouth adhesive-sealed shut for the rest of fifth grade.
A sublime start with a nice poem, Alana K. You may like to read my poem, Love And Lust. Thank you.
Thank you, Jazib. Sublime? Or perhaps sublimated from bitter experience...: -) I think of all those long hours and endless days in fifth grade, unable to speak, unable to get my mouth open, like a girl in a horror movie, a mute mouthless scarecrow of a girl...: -X
Nicely written memories of childhood, though it hard to digest the feelings of young you that time in that punishment.. hard todigest! ! 10++
Yes, it was hard to digest then, and it's still hard to digest today 30+ years later. Sitting there in class all day long wearing a mask of adhesive tape that physically enforced my silence...
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/18/2024 3:32:27 AM # 1.0.0.1119
A well articulated narrative piece of poetry, a melancholic train of thought, insightfully penned with conviction. I guess you had it coming too. A lovely poem indeed. Thanks for sharing Alana. Please read my poem MANDELA - THE IMMORTAL ICON.
Well, my mother certainly thought I had it coming. She continued all through that school year to back up my teacher's method of enforcing my silence in the classroom.