Friday night the ICU English department hosted a poetry slam at Uncommon Grounds coffee shop. Birdie always had the pleasure of working these events. Ian and Selma had both entered the competition. Birdie eyed them while changing coffee filters. Selma had brought her boyfriend, a man named Hassan Alsinan, with her. He was good-looking but distant. They had been dating for two weeks now and he refused to participate in any kind of public display of affection. When Selma tried to hold his hand he pulled it out of her grasp quickly. Birdie didn’t like him. She didn’t trust him. She thought Selma could do better.
Blake Rogers had joined Ian at their table and every now and then Birdie caught him staring at her. Blake was really starting to get on her nerves lately. He wouldn’t stop flirting with her. Yesterday he even had the audacity to buy her flowers.
Mrs. Nelson, Birdie’s first grade teacher had come to the poetry slam. She didn’t enter the competition but was getting up to read to read for the open mic section that signaled “intermission” between rounds. Birdie couldn’t help but check her out. Although she was probably the same age as Birdie’s mother, Mrs. Nelson looked good. She read her poem and Birdie picked up some clean coffee mugs to dry while she listened:
“Skin the color of caramel surrounds me like a cocoon.
You are lips and eyes and breasts and softness.
My heart flutters like a butterfly as you caress me gently.
The mattress rolls and seems to breathe under me.
Undulating passions and a love that goes unrecognized.
Invisible to the eyes of institutions that decide.”
Mrs. Nelson sat down. Birdie held the mug in her hands. She had stopped drying after the first two lines of Mrs. Nelson’s poem. She dropped the mug back in the dishwasher and walked over to Ian. He was nervously reading through one of his competition poems. She flicked him on the shoulder to get his attention.
“Is Mrs. Nelson a lesbian?” she asked him.
“Yeah, didn’t you hear?” Ian responded. Birdie looked at him, puzzled.
“Peabody Elementary school fired her after they found out she was bisexual. I guess some middle schooler came to her thinking he was gay and wanting advice. She told him it was ok to explore his sexuality and when his parents found out they flipped. She was fired a week later,” he spat and went back to practicing for the next round.
Birdie was filled with rage. How could Peabody Elementary possibly do that? That had to be illegal! There had to be something she could do to help.
She went back behind the counter, made two cups of chai tea and punched out for her break. Mrs. Nelson smiled warmly when Birdie slid into the seat next to her.
“Why Birdie O’Reilly, I haven’t seen you since you puked on the gym floor when you were a third grader,” she said.
Birdie laughed, happy that Mrs. Nelson had remembered her.
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