by Matthew E. Henry (MEH)
Are you busy? | Can I ask you something? | When is this due? | When did we go over that? | Is this going to be on the test? | Is there extra credit? | Do you ever think none of this means anything? | Apple juice or orange juice? | Favorite cheese? (if you dislike cheese, favorite soap?) |What’s your favorite poem? | Who’s your least favorite colleague in the English department? | What are your thoughts on [insert the latest racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic incident at our school]? | How the hell do you still work here? | Do you enjoy your job? | Why did you become a teacher? |What made you fall in love with English? | Will you stick around to teach my younger sibling? | Will you be here to teach my kids? | Will we be surprised by the number of bodies in your basement, or how few there are? | What’s your favorite color? | What’s your biggest regret? | When’s the last time you cried and why? | Do you ever try to make yourself upset when you’re bored because you’re so tired of feeling nothing? | Do you ever wonder if you will be remembered? | How and when do you think you will die? | Can I have an extension? | Can I go to the bathroom? | May I go to the bathroom? | What do you want from us? (that sounds rude – it wasn’t meant that way) | What are your biggest motivations in life? | Did you hear what I did?! | Is this a bad idea? | Are you going to rat me out? | What should I do? | What would you do? | What should I tell my friend? | What should I tell “my friend”? | How did you know? | Who hurt you? | Do you have any siblings? | Are you happy? | When did you get a divorce? | Are you seeing someone? | What are the names of your cats? | What parts of your childhood do you think have impacted your adult life the most? | Do you take care of us because you’re compensating for some trauma in your own childhood? | How are you doing? | Have you gone back to therapy? | When’s the last time you wanted to not be here anymore? | Does the pain ever stop? | Does it ever get better? | Do you have to tell them? | Do I have to tell them? | Will you go with me? | Are you free to talk?
Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is the author of the Colored Page (Sundress Publications, 2022), Teaching While Black (Main Street Rag, 2020) and Dust & Ashes (Californios Press, 2020). He has two collections forthcoming in 2023 from NYQ Books and Harbor Editions. He is editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal and an associate poetry editor at Pidgeonholes. MEH’s poetry and prose appears or is forthcoming in Barren Magazine, The Florida Review, Massachusetts Review, Ninth Letter, Ploughshares, Porcupine Literary, Shenandoah, Solstice, and Zone 3 among others. MEH’s an educator who received his MFA yet continued to spend money he didn’t have completing an MA in theology and a PhD in education. You can find him at www.MEHPoeting.com writing about education, race, religion, and burning oppressive systems to the ground.
Emerge Literary Journal 