Shout Your Story to the World

Bria is cute.

She turns her uniform all glamour
with a heel on her black buckle shoes
and an array of purses
silver
black
green
each holding the treasures of 5th grade:
lip gloss, mirror, lotion.

Bria is mean.

She is the director
of every classroom drama.
She'll be your best friend one minute
and turn on you the next.
She always wins in girl world.

Bria has power.

And she has figured out that
the secret of school is
that no one can make you learn.
The state can compel attendance
but they can not crack open your brain,
line up multiplication facts and vowel sounds
and the five sentence paragraph,
like stocking a winter pantry,
zip you up and send you home.

You get to choose.

So yesterday
when Bria wrote for a full half-hour,
scribbled out a page of words,
and wildly waved her hand to share
I let her read and then went
praise crazy

Look at this word! What a great word!
And this line here...this really moved me
and good writing makes the reader feel things.

She was beaming.

"I'm a writer!" she exclaimed,
"Read my story!" and she'd push her
notebook into the hands of whoever might
be nearby.

Sometimes I wish there was a magic spell
to make Bria want to learn--
but it's even better
when it happens
for real.