I Stand Up

When I listen to the whistle
shriek like a tornado's moving in
against my 8th graders--
those brave experiments out in life
and
When I listen to elbows meeting jaws
of my fragile 8th graders--
those fierce warriors conquering life--
and listen to the silence that
reverberates erratically from the whistle--
For them, I stand up.

When I listen to the
teasing, taunting, terrorizing
of a beautiful girl trapped in her own world--
Inwardly I cry--willing them to stand up
Outwardly I glare--and verbally declare,
"I thought we are all humans."
For her, I stand up.

Then I remember my own laughter.
She put a whiteout snowstorm on her pencil box.
Her clothes were a discordant song.
Her hair was a faded rainbow
And my 6th grade laughter was a dagger to her heart.
I chose to sit passively by,
So now, I stand up