Charles Wax

I said to Barry Waldbaum in the Teacher’s Center,
“One of my students asked me, ‘What’s a hermaphrodite? ’”
“That some kinda mollusk, Bernstein? ” he said,
“cause I think I seen that creature on NATURE.”
...

I strode to the Pier in Coney Island
on Christmas day. Eleven degrees
and with a gale off the vast Atlantic
the temperature zipped
...

well, most people don’t read my stuff
cause not published
except in little magazines
with an average circulation
...

Every so often
I felt the need
to spice up my class
with a sermon
...

I descended into the pit with Caligula
while my hero the Dalai Lama
serenely watched men
sawn in half
...

When I landed in my third
period class
Trisha stood near my desk
I thought to myself, “She’s blessed—
...

Billy Mullins trudged into Meng’s
having just returned
from four months in a Florida jail,
possession of marijuana
...

Matilda Halbert pushed into Meng’s
at exactly five in the afternoon
with her red shopping cart
empty except for cardboard
...

Miriam curled up
at the far end of
Meng’s Restaurant
in Coney Island
...

For the first time in 14 months
I went to the movies
afterwards we went to China New Star
myself and six friends.
...

Hubert at 38
and weighing 427 pounds
an only child
father dead long ago
...

Soon the snow would whirl from highest heaven to earth
spreading the nectar of happiness
on the tortured streets, on the tortured hearts.
“You ain’t heard a word I said, ” Hubert Tilton moaned.
...

Ever since Andrew Stern’s wife
left him for guy living
next door
he couldn’t shake the blues
...

Mabel Catherine Rose allowed herself
to be wheeled into Meng's once a week
for her beloved pork chops with corn and applesauce.
She could well afford to eat that feast every day
...

Mary McCall
one of my students
raped
in an abandoned building
...

Best Practices in the Classroom
Principal Harry Zundel was instructed by
Superintendent Bertha Happ
to place an aquarium in each classroom
...

In 1968 I landed a job in Berriman JHS
thus keeping me out of Viet Nam
but if I faltered and got fired
I’d be there swatting flies and fleeing bullets.
...

thousands
secretly alive
in walls and closets and bookrooms
but even in daylight
...

The sadness had not yet
left her
burying her grandmother
two days ago.
...

1: 47 at night, still loitering on the Pier
with the usual crew
when old Tom Duffy walked by unsteadily
and as he passed under one of the lights
...