Pink Slips

 

In elementary school, I was late everyday-
the commute from Burkburnett to Wichita Falls;

 

 

mother slept on the couch
only to wake up late
every morning,
wake me up late,
every morning
and I was late to school everyday.

 

 

I studied in the car-
I no longer get car sick.

 

 

The Hawaiian woman, the principal,
would write little pink slips, my tardiness,
a record of my lateness.

 

 

She

 

 

forced them on me,
those pink slips-

 

 

at ages fivesixseveneightninetenelevetwelve

 

 

Stopped

 

 

  when I was thirteen and went to a public
junior high, after we moved into Wichita Falls.

 

 

I walked to school then
and my mother stayed on the couch,
away from my father,

 

 

and I signed no more pink slips.

 

Reviews

[Lola Nation]

Aw pink slips, truant slips, I know them all and could forge my father's name better than anyone til my mother found out and told the "main office" to stop accepting the absence / late notes from my father - the funny part was my dad's name was Kim so they never really caught on...

sigh.

The background of this poem is also very telling for the lateness that emulates your life...pink slips for more than just the notification that you were "missing" important educational minutes ... or perhaps you were gaining them through those late entrances and exits from family.