The Chase

Lately I’ve been looking for the Laughter instead of the Answers

because schoolboys use to chase the girls
with cicada shells
and smuggle them into their pigtails at lunch

it’s schoolboy logic to think
that chasing her with this crunchy insect’s carcass
could make her heart race right into a crush

to think that the cicada shell might otherwise be
the cocoon of a caterpillar
(it was the closest he’d come to giving her butterflies)

but his chase made her a runaway

so when the girl came crying to her parents at pick-up
What could the teacher say except, first, the good news

is there anything more incriminating
than nonchalance

it was cute then but
only a child, innocent as a papercut,
wears his ego like a cap back to front
even then his long wooden nose will get burnt

and aren’t I too old now
haven’t I graduated from
combing through the signs
to look for cicada shells like they’re nits

that’s why I’m glad that you’re older now and less afraid
to let your laughter glow in the dark
let your words be obvious and snug
like a love letter sliding into an envelope
 
still, I find myself watching your movements
for all the things you never say
in case that schoolboy in you never ran away