When we met, Monday was my favorite day of the week.

You skinned my knees and dressed me in bright Band-Aids

Every day took my Mami away,

Replaced her with scissors and circle time.

I met chapter books and multiplication—

My forever friends and enemies—

Planting seeds of my future talents

With play-dates along the way.

No deadlines or quotas,

Knowledge for knowledge’s sake.

Fell in love with you, 

Monday to Friday.

Soon, we both began to change— 

My hormones, your magnitude

When I took my first exam at eleven years old

I first sensed your cold shoulder,

A taste of future nights spent cramming.

Couldn’t ignore elders’ whispers

That as I age, your heart will start to freeze;

But they didn’t warn me regarding

The fiery incineration of my own spirit.

This morning is Monday, the rotten weekday,

I already crave forsaking your tyranny on Friday.

You shot caffeine into my veins, I groaned while slamming the snooze—

Haven’t laughed since July.
I lack the hours to act my age

To sprint, free of spirit, spiraling down grassy hills

Mother Earth calls me to the living room

But I seldom have time to indulge her.

Nocturnal— dreading sunrise, craving darkness

I live for days wasted sleeping to make up for 

Countless late nights turned early mornings.

You’ve robbed me blind

Of wealth. Smiles. Of past and future.

Of wisdom’s eminence.

Do you take pride in the tension in my shoulders

In the throbbing against my skull

And the purpling under my eyes?

Stockholm syndrome: I want to love to learn again.

When I’ve earned my straight A’s, awards and achievements,

When I reach university gates to study on my terms,

Will that 12-year uphill battle against you

Have been worth the payoff?

When I grey and wither, in an armchair fit for a relic

My granddaughter’s excited plea, “Tell me about high school”

Instead of late night drives, movie theaters

Days and nights of coffee cups and glee

I will remember studying Biology for hours on end

Only to fail time and time again.

We have failed to give our children the gift of knowledge

Instead, we present it as a curse.

We have failed in providing the diamonds and rubies

Guaranteed to aid their futures

Instead, we teach what is tedious. 

We teach memorization and uniformity

Rather than tools and morals in which a student 

Finds their passion and reaches the stars.

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