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All of it will vanish    At 9 Saint Patrick’s
         Image of God erased
         By Maureen O’Neill
Good-bye shamrock on the green board

Adios isosceles triangle
         At 10    Gone in one swipe
         Its numinous white
Form still faintly clinging as dust

But Sister Mary Felicia’s silk hanky
        Will soon show her power
        Oh No    All the achievements
Of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Including World War Two in red
        Chalk    Social reforms in
        White letters     Business rules
In blue    A tiny rain of dry dust

Falls right before 12    Arrivederci
        Asexual reproduction
        High-noon paramecia
Ten billion times normal size

Disappear    Thank you    Antonia
         For the fingernail screech
         And the gentle curve
Of your arm to erase History &

Geography at once    Too bad Latvia
         Adieu Armenia &
         Your great invention
The church dome levitating like a

Tiny beanie    Ta Ta    French Equatorial
         Africa   Sayonara Siam
         Where are the naps of
Yesteryear?  After school it’s music

The Slovodba triplets shiver on
        The blacktop playground
        Smile    Sing    Clap erasers
Together    Pound them on the side

Of the brick    Thin white feathers
        Of their breath    The white
        Puffs of chalk dust letters
Melt into threads of cool October air

Walking home     I will always hear
        A song seep out of Mickey
        McGrath’s frost-covered
Somehow Studebaker Avanti Two

Like the record says    You can draw
        Chalk arrows on walks
        Until the snow covers
It all and makes nowhere your home