My Cardboard Balcony

Credential Program by Belinda Roddie Bolded emphasis on identity. Back at university, ready to wrangle fifty-five students in the California morning. Strike through one word, suggest a better one. Underline the good parts  for them. Let them know that their dreams can be seen  in color between each blackened line. I want to be the teacher who reminds the students with rainbows under their eyes that they are not alone.

"Well," I breathed. "This has been a day. A tremendously difficult, sporadic, psychotic day. It's been a day when I've questioned everything and yet received no answer besides the fact that two plus two still fucking equals four. And through it all, I've stared into the madness once again of teenage spirit, something I thought I had finally grown out of. But it's back. Dear God in Heaven, the damn thing's back."