Dear Teacher
No one can hear me
Because I am so small
But boys and girls hear you
As you do your roll call
If things could have been different
I would have been in your class
I would have been your helper
I’d run errands for you with a teachers pass
I’m the little boy
Who would sit in the desk
Second row third from the back
If only I had been born
My name would be Jimmy Jack
Only you and all my friends
Would call me JJ
And on every sunny day
I would beg you to let us
Go out and play
But Dear Teacher
Things weren’t different
And I’m not in your class
I didn’t get to be your helper
Or carry the teachers pass
I’m not that little boy
I didn’t get to sit in the desk
I didn’t even get a name
Not Jimmy Jack or even JJ
And no I didn’t even get
To play just one sunny day
(2009)
