“All together now”
Irritates me to no end.
Droning declarations are
Denuded of meaning.
Individual reflection is lost
To the snore-worthy whole.
Each syllable is loud and proud.

Look—some need swallowing,
Others masticating.
Some few are popped like gum.

The words walk with stately steps
Down the aisles of the classroom
Or church
Amelodically progressing
To a flat end.

I pledge allegiance,
full of grace
with socks of lace
and beaded ceintures,
to the republic for which it
suffered and died and was buried.
On my honor, I will try
to sin no more
with Liberty and Justice—

None of them are strange.

Same pace every place

Except in Texas where church-speak’s stultifying drawl
Paradoxically speeds my bloodbeat until my soul screams “Deliver us from evil!” as
They intone that they “Will be done.”

In room 204
Eighteen students
Speaking in unison
Strip-mine meaning—

So the muse, horrified
Sticks her fingers in her ears and shuts her eyes so tight
Her crows’ feet tap on her temples.
After the muddy mutter ends
She breathes,
Dwelling on the
Near-silence,
And hears the hush of
Re-recitation.
Meredith McMahon was
Unwilling to allow
The fly-buzz
To be treated
That way.