Why I am Writing a Dissertation

For my students, the ones

that click their pens like

a detonator

the ones that can’t fit

all of their life into my classroom

For the soldiers in unpronounceable places,

their ability to do

what I did not, could not

for the wind and the words

and the open mouthed earth,

for those that came home

to banners, balloons, babies

to an empty gate and a

lost bus ticket

for the day after the parade.

For the teachers who can’t teach them

for the schools that can’t fit them

for the students who were soldiers,

I am trying to open the windows.

I am trying to fill this place with light.