Mud Pies: Lessons In The Earth

(Class photo from grade 4...I'm in the front left with the dirty-knees beside the yogi)

I wrote "Mud Pies" to celebrate life's most valuable lessons - those learned outside of the classroom.

Mud Pies

Miss Young never mentioned the mud pies
but she watched us at work
bobbing below the ground
amphibious in a ditch
at the edge of our playground

Within the freedoms of recess and lunch
we practiced our lessons in the earth
far away from textbooks
and other prescriptions

After the bell we would show up
late for row-call
porous and slippery
with our creations dripping in the cloakroom

But Miss Young never mentioned the mud pies
or gave a lesson outside near the earth
Instead she stuffed us
with the text-gristled curriculum
while everyday outside
the ditch crawled closer and closer

Miss Young was my 2nd Grade teacher at H.T. Thrift Elementary. She was a nice woman, but obviously had misplaced priorities. The poem appears with five more of mine in An International Anthology Of Poetry from Hidden Brook Press.