The classroom birds do tweet so sweet,
Shrill notes of lecture-tuned wit.
A mating call in resonance
With chalk board cues.
Bird lings for morning’s worm
Peep anxieties.
Few do not partake
In doting decibels.
A marking book of symphonies
Conducts the thought-numb orchestra.
Sour notes to shatter harmony
Of cooing clocks.
Cackle, cackle, little hen,
Feathers falling in the snow.
Strutting roosters scatter bits
Of walked-on knowledge grit.
James K. Richardson