Substitute teachers are never
as good as the originals.
They forget names, rely
on notes, glance at the clock
too much.
And then that word chosen.
When it’s from a batch of discards,
how special is that?
And don’t forget: chosen once
means not chosen a bunch
of other times.
Stand-in. Who were you expecting?
What ghost am I competing with?
The word real.
All the kids who ask
“Is she your real mom?”
I want to bark, “No, she’s fake.
She’s pretending. So am I.
I’m pretending you didn’t ask
me that.”
Shoshauna Shy's poems have been made into videos, produced inside taxi cabs, and even decorated the hind quarters of city buses. Not a monogamous writer, she works on 7-11 pieces at the same time. She is also a flash fiction author— but that's another story!
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