Three Special Girls

By ‘Xevious’ Pat Banks

I teach three special little girls.
My job can be hard
But I would have it no other way.
It can be trying at times.

My job can be hard
So why do I accept it?
It is so trying at times
With the danger they seem to attract.

No one else would accept the responsibility
Knowing the abilities they possess
Would attract danger to our stead.
A colorful toy phone is a constant reminder.

With the abilities they possess
Our city continues to thrive.
But as the toy phone constantly rings
I sometimes wish they were like the other children.

When the city thrives on peace
The classroom is a sea of calm.
They are like all the other children
Who are normal as any five year old would be.

The classroom is a sea of calm
As they sit at their table so well behaved.
They are as normal as any five year old would be,
Coloring, drawing, so full of life.

They sit at their table so well behaved
Unaware of being different.
Coloring, drawing, so full of life.
Freely giving light in a dark day.

They are unaware of being different
But I would have it no other way
When I see the light given so freely.
I teach three special little girls.

END

 

Authors note: This is a form of poetry called a pantoum. A pantoum is written in quatrains (stanzas containing four lines) and repeats whole lines in an interlocking pattern. The second and fourth lines of any stanza become the first and third lines of the stanza that follows.

In the pantoum's last stanza, the first and third lines of the opening stanza are finally repeated as the fourth and second lines. The order of those lines can be reversed, but an ideal pantoum will end with the poem's opening line- creating a kind of circle.