I play me at school Mars-tongued,
dropping my spoon in a bandage box
and aiming for the ceiling to walk me
prison-free for any future. A little fire
in the arithmetic is subtracting words
from my numbers. I’m adding my name
to lots more invisibility so that I’m in
the only answer section that somebody
tore out. I’m in the wordy preface, too,
like a blue jay with a featherless face.
I play me in the back of the classroom
with a countdown chiseled from the sky.