School Starts so soon for the Kids...

They will be in class. Learning. Then they will spill on to the playground, eyes all sharp and sparkly, hard and bright. They have heard the new lessons. They began to chant, more and more voices take up the playground call in the cruel wicked way of some children (not mine of course):

Harding, Hoover, Nixon and Bush. You almost expect men by these names to take the field in some sort of sports outfit, a costume that identifies what they are about to become involved with. Harding, Hoover, Nixon and Bush. Maybe the starting rotation for the old Washington Senators? Harding, Hoover Nixon and Bush. Must be the cafeteria ladies. The new ones. Everyone knows they don't really cook anything at school. Kids gotta have it shipped in from Taco Bell. Big business, contracting it out. Harding Hoover, Nixon and Bush. The school board, the ones that have not built a new auditorium for one of the biggest high schools in the area. Harding Hoover Nixon and Bush. Weren't they supposed to build a drag strip right out side town? Harding Hoover, Nixon and Bush, Harding Hoover Nixon and Bush.

It goes on and on. One kid begins to cry, another starts to fight, throwing weak girl punches at shadows kicking up the dust of the playground that the tears turn to mud in his hair. The mud is in his hair because his world is upside down.

Harding, Hoover, Nixon and Bush.