The classroom brims with boredom
Boredom that buzzed around
With the lazy, unwholesome feeling
Of swarming insects

The winter sun beat on the windows
Scraping at the glass
Begging to be let in
Behind the beige blinds
That block him out

The heater hums reassuringly
In the corner where I sit
Lulling my brain into sleepy state
Where concentration is impossible

The floor falls away
To reveal an ocean below
Full of a whale and a school of fish
And a turtle, swimming contentedly

I clamber up on top of my desk
And dive in
A perfect swan dive
Which parts the water perfectly

Like opening an old dusty book
That smells like attic
And oatmeal-raisin cookies
With a green cover

The green is a fuzzy, soft green
Like a wool sweater
Or a rock covered in moss
Upon which sits a centipede

I mount the saddle on the centipede’s back
And it marches away
All one hundred appendages
Shuffling forward slowly

It swerves and climbs and creeps
Slithers and clings and crawls
And begins its slow march
Up the mouth of a rain gutter

As the hundred legs dance
And the centipede climbs higher
The light of the sun falls down the gutter
To land in my eyes
And dazzle my creeping steed

He stops mid-crawl
And refuses to continue
So I pat his armored shoulder
In a solemn farewell

And claim a sun-beam
Upon which to ascend from the gutter
And climb up the rays of the sun
Until I reach the clouds

Cumulous clouds that look like cotton
That are shaped like ice cream cones
And lobsters and violins and a castle
That beckon to my love of adventure
With promise of fairy tales and sonnets

As I enter the castle
I see that something is amiss
There is no floor and I stumble
Forward and fall and fall and fall

I land in a desk
In a room empty of interest
And plump with restless boredom
Where a question awaits an answer

And the answer awaits my train of thought
Which is perhaps a bit behind schedule
Due to snow drifts
And a few straggling passengers

Wait! A report has just arrived!
The train of thought has collided
With another train
A train of circus animals, headed for Minneapolis…