Learning

Like Lilly Like Wilson Like

I'm writing the poem that will change the world,
and it's Lilly Wilson at my office door.
Lilly Wilson, the recovering like addict, the worst
I've ever seen.
So, like, bad te whole eighth grade started
calling her Like Lilly Like Wilson Like.
Until I declared my classrom a Like-Free Zone,
and should could not speak for days.

But when she finally did, it was to say,
Mr. Mali, this is ... so hard.
Now I have to thing before I... say anything.

Imagine that, Lilly.

It's for your own good.
Even if you don't like...it.

I'm writing the poem that will change the world,
and it Lilly Wilson at my office door.
Lilly is writing a reasearch paper for me about how
homosexuals shouldn't be allowed to adopt
children.
I'm writing the poem that will change the world,
and it's Like Lilly Like Wilson Like at my office
door.

She's having trouble finding sources, which is to
say, ones that back her up.
They all argue in favor of what I thought I was
against.

And it took four years of college, three years of
graduate school, and every incidental
teaching experience I have ever had to let out
only,

Well, that's a really interesting problem, Lilly. But
what do you propose to do about it? That's
what I want to know.

And the eighth-grade mind is a beautiful thing;
Like a new-born baby's face, you can often see it
change before your very eyes.

I can't believe I'm saying this, Mr. Mali, but I think
I'd like to switch sides.

And I want to tell her to do more than just believe
it, but to enjoy it!
That changing your mind is one of the best ways
of finding out whether or not you still have
one.
Or even that minds are like parachutes, that it
doesn't matter what you pack them with so
long as they open at the right time.
O, Lilly, I want to say you make me feel like a
teacher, and who could ask for more than
that?
I want to say all this but manage only, Lilly, I am
like so impress with you!

So I finally taught somebody something, namely,
how to change her mind.
And learned in the process that if I ever change
the world it's going to be one eighth grader at
a time.

by: Taylor Mali