BUDDING SCHOLARS
by April Halprin Wayland
Welcome, Flowers.
Write your name on a name tag.
Find a seat.
Raise your leaf if you’ve taken a class here before.
Let’s go around the room—
call out your colors.
I see someone’s petal has fallen—
please pick it up and put it in your desk
where it belongs.
Sprinklers at recess,
fertilizer for lunch,
and you may snack on the sun throughout the day.
Excuse me…
what’s that you have in your mouth?
A bee?
Did you
bring enough
for everyone?
published in Sharing the Seasons ~ A Book of Poems, selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Margaret K.McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, 2010)
