School

My black and white sheep dog ‘Rex’
followed me three blocks to school
to the corner gas station where
he sat down when when I said “Sit,”
knowing it also meant ‘Stay.’
I left him and crossed the street to
the maroon red-brick school.
I knew even then, without being taught,
that it was wrong to leave him there.
I went inside and climbed the long wooden stairs
to Miss Sundling’s room on the second floor
where I was learning about the
new strange black lines called ‘letters’,
the big thick ones above the little thin ones,
that circled around the top of the high walls
like stars that I could not reach or touch.
There was a big S for ‘Steel’ and ‘Strong,’
a small s for ‘sympathy,’
a big B for ‘Behave,’ a small b for ‘boy,’
a big I for ‘Instruct,’ a small one for ‘interest,
a big R for ‘Responsible’ and ‘Rules,’ a small r for ‘run,’
a big G for ‘God,’ a small g for ‘gum,’
a big Q for ‘Quiet,’ a small q for ‘question,’
a big M for ‘Money,’ a small n for ‘need,’
a big W for ‘Win,’a small w for ‘we,’
a big C for ‘Country,’ ‘Classroom,’
a small d for ‘dog.
Everything I would need to know from Action to Zero.