Calculate it by adding the lengths of all its sides,
now. 

Put your finger here & tie a bow.

Everyone sit on the rug.

A progress report & a guided tour of your world in eight minutes.

Master fraction equivalence,

punch a pillow if you feel angry, math

grows our mind to…plan ahead.

Tonight we hold you wrapped in a blanket.

During the tour one of the parents asks will my child 

ever have to use this in the real world & the teacher 

makes a face.

They are walking the perimeter of the school,

now put your finger here & feel for a pulse. 

Tomorrow overturned bookcases, prayers, soft animals 

& scalpels.

This morning the teacher is crouching behind the door

with the kids holding a sharpened 

pencil. Everyone be very very quiet.

Hilesh Patel is a disabled poet, consultant, mediator and member of the art group The Chicago ACT Collective (@thechicagoactcollective). He is a proud immigrant and has called Chicago home for most of his life. His work has been published in Sixty Inches from Center, Relief Journal, Passengers, Jaggery, AIOTB Magazine, and others.