Kate Hogan

Lesson Plan

They asked me what the gloaming was,
Eyes like kerosene lamps
Concrete angels mossed over in the graveyard,
Last coercions of a fruit about to fall
From its branch to the frost,
A glass held to the ear, the roar
Of an ocean in its shell?

I can’t tell them how it contains
The strains of dual faith,
Benjamin’s dialectical image, the thought
That “every epoch dreams the one that follows it,”
In the words of Michelet;
The way
“Give me Liberty, or give me death”
Rings in our ears even when
Ear-witnesses couldn’t remember
What Patrick Henry said.

But patriotism is all
These children are forced to recall, so
How could I explain any other way
When their little hands were clenched
Around patterned pencils,
Lined notebooks at the ready,
Miss Brown’s framework
Stenciled firmly on their foreheads?

Kate Hogan is a recent transfer to Binghamton University from Broome Community College. She has lived many years in the Southern Tier of New York,  and is pursuing her undergraduate degree.