Today I’d like
to hurtle back through time
I’d walk into our sunny kitchen
glance at my busy mother,
quietly moan
and clutch my belly
(not too dramatically
just enough)
“My tummy hurts.”
“I feel sick.”
“Do I have a fever?”
With 5 kids
my mom was savvy
such tactics generally doomed
But there was a chance…
If my charade was unconvincing
and school still loomed,
I would want
to kick and stomp my feet
to wail at full volume,
til seismic tremors
rattled the walls of the house
“I don’t wanna go to school!”
“I don’t wanna go to school!”
But even as a child
I recognized the futility
Such behavior was unseemly.
The taboo remains
So today
I will go to school
pasting a smile on my face
but internally
I’m kicking and screaming
the walls are shaking
my tantrum is in full swing
“I don’t wanna go to school!”
Nix the comfort zone 
We who have spent a lifetime in classrooms know of what you speak. Especially this morning when our windows are open and the 62F flows through every room and out the back windows.
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Some days are just like that and if not for my dislike of writing sub plans, I might take such days as sick days, but no…
You captured the feelings well!
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Wasn’t it wonderful to take a sick day. Non one to care for but yourself…
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I a feeling the same way today. Summer vacation can;t get here soon enough. Good thing I love my job!
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Ha! I love this poem! I feel like that on some days also, but I never made the connection back to my attempts at fake sick days as a child. Great, great Slice.
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I was the opposite. I loved going to school! My fibs and lies would come when my mother stuck the thermometer under my tongue and then walked out of the room. I’d wave it around in the air to cool it off; then she’d be confused because the reading didn’t match the feel of my flushed face. But I did have adult tantrums like yours, especially on days like Dan describes. Oh, Molly, your writing evokes memories in me. Thank you.
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Sue, truly I usually loved school, too (and I love your story about the thermometer.) But today I felt like I was channeling an inner child having a full strength tantrum!
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I love that you added voice and reason to the the somewhat common feeling we all have recently. I love the connection you make to childhood schooling and now to your adulthood teaching.
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We all have days like this…still 🙂
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Love this. Like so many other readers, I felt the beautiful nostalgia of finding ways to avoid the dreaded morning of the school day. It’s nice to be reminded of what it’s like to be a kid – it definitely helps to put things in perspective as the teacher.
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