A Summer's Day is Not a Bitch (Poetry)

Not Smart

I wish I was smart in a tangible kind of way.

I wish I brought home report cards printed on sheets of cardstock that could be proudly displayed on the refrigerator.

I wish that folders and paper clips would organize my homework in such a way that maybe I could muster up the determination to do it.

I wish that my thoughts didn't twist my mind into knots and,

I wish the scribbles in the margin of my notebook could be blotted out and molded into the answer to number five.

I wish that I could understand how everyone around me has a 4.0, a smile, and

a brain that thinks before it follows through.

I wish that intelligence wasn't defined by a letter on a page

I wish that midterms didn't mean a battle with teachers to get good grades

I wish that school was less about passing and more about the questions we should be asking

Am I stupid for wishing that?

Or am I just not smart in the way you want me to be?

See that's what's wrong with our society is that kids like me get thrown aside

Labeled as lazy, self-centered, careless and a million other things we are not trying to be.

Dear Math Final,

Boy have I got a problem for you. Here's a new question to put on my next test,

Is my attention span really the issue?

Or is the system failing me?

I wish it was the latter but I know both are partly true

The system can't control the wonder I find in the world in which I live

But neither can I and that is why

I am incapable of conforming to the standards that are specified

My brain goes a million miles a minute just trying to come up with something that rhymes with the word "Spent" 

Because I want to write about how being "Not Smart" isn't gonna pay my rent

If that's the way it's going to be, I'm not so sure

I want it.

Do you?