My Cardboard Balcony

The Hanging Man by Belinda Roddie don't you ever get tired of dangling upside down from a ceiling that's scarred with more cracks than the mirror in your mother's bathroom, after she flung her stiletto heel into its face as it wordlessly begged for mercy? don't you imagine a life that's better and outside the apartment where you lost your virginity to a man who never loved you, and you were left with crumbs after he consumed the feast, while your mother did her mascara over your crying body as she laughed and laughed and laughed? and don't you get scared of the voices you hear from the upstairs loft - the ones who whisper your name after two AM, and somehow your mother answers back, but you can't find the saliva to scream, and all you want to do is drop to the floor and run, run, run?

I want this country to be well-educated. I want children to feel like they are given the most, and best, opportunities to succeed. I want public schools to flourish and teachers to be paid what they actually deserve. I'll give you a hint: They deserve a lot more than what they're given now. What my government has decided on today is a slap in my face and in the face of educators and students across every state. This may not be a piece of flash fiction as per usual, and I may be spoiling the fun on this website, I have one word (appropriately enough) to say to the United States Congress for confirming Betsy DeVos - an unqualified, plagiarizing master of political bribery - as Secretary of Education: Shame.