Alphabets on the Wall by Debbie Okun Hill

POEM NAME: Alphabets on the Wall AUTHOR NAME: Debbie Okun Hill POEM: They snap to attention like elastic bands sing O Canada as they stand on guard with ruler straight spines against chalk dust memories. Alphabets, on the wall upper and lower cases upper and lower classes wearing white lettered sweaters printed pouts and cursive hips. First day of grade school young students poke fun point fingers at them. Such confusion like playing an adult game of Scrabble those vowels and consonants jumbled in undeveloped brain bags. Their understanding of language mainly oral and kinetic like marbles glass crocks and ceramic pretties roller-coasting out of their mouths. Their outside voices like run-on sentences dart-dashing down the aisle. If only they could cartwheel over their homework and desks hang out on the monkey bars leave the phonetic reading to the faded alphabets on the wall. END OF POEM. CREDITS: Copyright © Debbie Okun Hill First Prize Winner, The Ontario Poetry Society’s Golden Grassroots Chapbook Award, 2017. Previously published in Chalk Dust Clouds (Beret Days Press, 2017) ISBN 978-1-926495-42-2 Debbie Okun Hill has been writing for over 35 years with a focus on poetry since 2003 and on blogging since 2014. She has one poetry trade book Tarnished Trophies with Black Moss Press and her award-winning work appears in four chapbooks. Over 440 of her individual poems have been published in Canada, the United States, and Israel. She is the former president of The Ontario Poetry Society, a full member of the League of Canadian Poets and The Writers Union of Canada, plus is a former co-host of Sarnia’s Spoken Word open mic event.