The dismissal bell resounded, rang
Across rooms, halls, playgrounds.
Music boomed where:
Parents waited,
Bus drivers talked,
Crossing guards,
Animated for service,
Checked their visors.

My watch misted.
Three antiquated hands aligned;
Hour, minute, second.
Passed over mental sleeping bags
Beyond cognitive boxes
Housing local news,
Real estate finds,
Next door neighbors’ dalliances.

Boredom makes semantics relative,
Among holy teachers.
Our time’s measured in tests and in graces
Which reject life chapters
Spread fully open,
Like rutting teenagers, who
Take leisure at bus stops,
Playgrounds, coffee houses.

Rather, we clerics’ small, intrepid voices must
Mark rustic cabins’ acreage,
Limits how immense swimming pools can grow,
Structure late night debates
On paying electric bills or mortgage,
On cell phone tones,
On chimeless texting
On maraudering coworkers.

Tamed, such matters
Slink into closets,
Hide under desks,
Get erased at recess,
Best, they’re relocated young.
Meanwhile, dark, anticipated pleasures
Wait until fully flowered
Or when the bell rings.