American Slice # 4
Berkshire County, Pittsfield High School 1:06 p.m.
November 16, 2010

dogs fluent in czech
sniff through our hallways
scratch at our doors
seeking out the transgressions
of the now generation

they are nervous
of things they haven’t done
or might have done
or thought once of doing
locked in a school
learning through experience
what the third reich
taught their dogs

someone farts in the silence
and against the plastic chairs
it echoes through locked down walls
yesterday the room would erupt
but no one laughs

a boy thought about smiling,
but then a dog in the distance
barks in czech