The Classroom Poem by James Roche

I laugh about it now
those black kids
they used to take my lunch money.

I never hated them.
I only hated the fact that they took my money
they were too cool to hate.
and they knew I didn't hate them
so they let me walk with them
like no crime had been committed.

I really understood all this back then.
even more than I do now.

And in later years
we would sit in Chelsea bars
drinking and laughing about the past.
because that's what it was.

They educated me
they let me in
maybe not for nothing
but I still got more
than what I paid for
they taught me well.