Miss Marcy, Music Teacher

Miss Marcy, Music Teacher

Miss Marcy wore aqua
apricot and pepto-bismol pink
suits and clicky shoes
and always tucked
a handkerchief under
her watchband.

Miss Marcy had black
cat eyed glasses and lacquered
red nails and mouth
and layers of cosmetic skin
and oddly yellow hair.
I never saw her face.

Miss Marcy made us read tiny dots
on thin lines instead of singing
a chorus of voices wasted
all of us wondering
at the pointless recitation
of forgettable songs.

Miss Marcy pointed
right at me one day
as our fingers smudged along the staff
took my book with two disgusted fingers
to display
the tiny dog ear
I had unknowingly rolled
into the corner.

Miss Marcy is long dead.