One period a week for ten weeks:
I volunteer to teach four new students
boy or girl, twelve to teen,
each struggles with sums they don't see
as easy for those long-abandoned
as “dumb”, in class one.

Today, I’m graced by four girls, less noisy,
more painless than last term's ADD boys.
Add five and nine, I ask when I start.
They count on their fingers or digits
that live in their heads. I watch each head tick.
Six times eight is a country uncharted.

Ten short hours to try and make
a difference left by seven long years
Ciara counts backward by nines
from ninety-nine. Lizzie laughs, moving
the decimal point right or left,
multiplying, and dividing by ten.

Sienna struggles with squares, so we
place poker chip patterns somewhere
on the desk. Six times six. Three by three.
Freya is flustered by circumference,
and segments, but captures a chord.
One period a week for ten weeks

Easy for me.
Small wins for them.
 

                                   14 May 2024