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Hell's Kitchen  1916

At school, the day began in the assembly hall,
where we were marched to the platform.
The principal and his aides frisked each child
for weapons: knives, billies, clubs, icepicks.
Contraband confiscated. Grim silence.

No lectures, sermons, admonitions, no flag
salutes or pledges. Suspended walls rolled
into place, making classrooms, where teaching
reluctant learners began. Mine suffered.

Teacher was a nice old Irish lady
who favored me as her pet, sowing seeds
of resentment among my classmates,
further worsened because I was a Jew.

My journeys to and from school
were a gauntlet fraught with fear
I'd be waylayed, belabored with stockings
filled with sweepings from the streets.

On reflection, I agree, it was less frightful.
Today at even among the best of schools
frustration, anger sparks terror with guns.

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