Your Girlfriend as Classroom Drills

She will be Cold War duck-and-cover, children shell-curled under wobble-leg desks, the stretch and tremble of their little ohed mouths, she will be ringing alarm, scent of phantom smoke, she will be footsteps in darkened halls, she will be kindergarteners crowded behind teacher’s desk, crayons in their little clutching hands, she will be Bobby wetting his pants during an active shooter alert, Kyndra’s texts home, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, she will be shake and sob of front-row glasses girls, she will be whisper and hush, she will be their blinking eyes, she will say why, she will say why, why, why.

Cathy Ulrich remembers having to use the buddy system for classroom drills; she was always losing track of her buddy. Her work has been published in various journals, including Citron Review, 100 Word Story and Adroit.

A Song for Cathy