An empty classroom,

The buzz of a fly against the windowpane

Overlooking bright wheat fields and dust and sky,

The scent of musty carpet and new paper in her nose,

The sound of air conditioning in the ducts like a plane taking liftoff and

The scratch of pencils on worksheets:

The realization that this has been her entire world, her entire life, her entire existence -

Laying aside the yellow number 2,

She walked out of that know-nothing school

In that know-nothing town 

With the fake people and silent graves,

To somewhere, anywhere, else,

To a place that actually meant something to her

In her imagination.