“Secondary” (Haiku 204-209)

By Thomas Page

Numbers, decimals
Black strokes on a page,
A grade book or old ledger
Chalk-coated blackboards
Hung scuffed off white walls;
Academic yin and yang
A snow warning on
The news. No delay did the
District. Go to school.
Colorless ice does
Not shine when headlights happen
Upon frozen streets
A rainbow of text
Bedecks the walls of classrooms,
Fancy on white walls
Sunlight bleeds into
The dark classroom; Plato’s
Cave allegory