smell of chalk, industrial cleaners
old textbooks, cheap school desks
a young boy musters his courage
[finally making good use of
his mischievous skills]
and passes a note to
a beautiful dark-haired
girl in a red sweater
she doesn’t have any ribbons
in her hair today
- which is good -
[he can’t think straight
when her hair’s up
for reasons he doesn’t yet understand]
but he knows that
all the hair ribbons were made for her
all the ribbons are made for her
