"Teaching Persona" by Megan Munger
poetry
Teaching Persona
When my students say
I’m their favorite, we’re talking,
off topic, all avoiding
our essay work, laughing
on a Friday afternoon
brainstorming a nickname
for an endless chirping cricket
outside my classroom window.
I don’t believe their claims
when they’ve all gone
home or when they skip
my class and nothing has been
turned in. I’m weeks behind
on grading and I’ve lost
count of how many
papers still wait.
I pull myself into
our school parking lot
on Saturday, sweatpants, glasses,
my hair in a ponytail—
my students never see this
side, the impossibility: Clark Kent
tired of being Superman.
Bio: Megan Munger is a Pacific University MFA Candidate and high school English teacher. Her poetry has been published in Epistemic Literary, The Paddock Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, The Closed Eye Open, Porcupine Literary, and Tipton Poetry Journal. Her work can also be found in other literary magazines and anthologies.