Standards-Based Assessment
By Dora Malech
I.
Nothing happened here.
Meaning it was done.
Over counts itself among
the studied synonyms
but beyond
those round mouths
opening for answers
done is the opposite of over.
II.
What is the sum
when you add
cut flowers in cellophane
to teddy bears and prayers
and the difference
when you take away
and take away
and take away?
Show your work.
Attend to precision.
III.
The students are gone.
It is not summer.
The classroom snake
that fled its shattered tank
the long shadows
draping themselves over
the overturned desks
and the red pen fallen
to the floor will count
as symbols on a different
subject test. Let them be
innocent in this world.
Copyright Credit: Dora Malech, "Standards-Based Assessment." Copyright © 2019 by Dora Malech. Used by permission of the author for PoetryNow.
Source: PoetryNow (2019)