Re: Cats in School 2021/22

So you wanna be a cat?

You say you “identify” as a cat?

And you’d like a litter pan

in the bathroom?

Don’t be ridiculous

Grow up

You’re not a cat

The world is in crisis and you need a good education to stop it

Do you think you can walk around all day

without a care in the world?

Pile on top of your friends and play?

You think you can rest in a beam of sunlight?

Preen and pretty yourself

while there’s work to do?

You’re not a cat

Sit up straight

Focus on the computer

No, not on your phone

In the tech room

You’re on your screen too much

You know that if you’re a cat you don’t get to use your iPad right?

And you’ll have to start living outside

Your eyes will have to get used to the dark

And you’ll have to stop caring so much

Cats don’t care

If we let you be a cat

What’s next?

Another teacher will want to be a monkey

And another a horse

No, no one swings from trees here

No one runs free with the wind in their hair

It’s hard enough that the gym teacher can barely keep from howling at the moon

every time it fulls

That the English teacher has a tail

under their skirt

That the janitor hides pointed ears

And the math teacher: fangs

Look,

For now we’ve got to pretend

Until the system catches up with us

Or vines grow over the classroom

For now

We have to pretend like defecating into

bowls of clean water when others

have no water at all

is a good idea

For now, we have to pretend

That the trees are just trees

And that kids are the only ones

who are acting out

Repressing their catness

For now we all have to pretend

like we don’t need to sharpen our claws,

that the papier-mâché is holding,

the construction paper is not faded

and that we don’t hear the beckoning

of trees

asking us to climb them

perhaps only to tease

the fire department