By JD Louis
for Xhosa Frazier
He’s reading dystopias. They rest in bad grammar, in a neat stack, to the right of his desk. On the top of the first page, she’s looking for synonyms for “run” and more specific guidelines, but she can’t find a prompt. At the bottom of the page, there’s silence, he can tell she’s concentrating now. When he turns the page, she starts to write on her own hand and he can’t quite make out her meaning. They giggle. They always giggle. He shakes his head. He’s bored. At home, the plants need water. “It’s the seventh grade,” he says, “Bleak.”
– JD Louis likes to think of himself as a master of mind manipulation whose mind is warped daily by the students he teaches at The Woodstock Day School in Upstate New York. JD has been heard yelling through the halls of time about how, “It’s time to grow up kids! It’s time to become children again!” JD’s accomplishments will only be found in the future, possibly whispered between former students, and in the work ethic of his students’ children.
Oblong 