Are You Sleeping?

Maureen Ingram

Bug-eyed, wide-awake, 3:46 a.m.
I am thinking through our words
Again, and again, and again.

Why do I care so much?
Why do I wrestle like this?
Why do I feel so frustrated?
Why does it matter so much?
Why does it wake me up?

Bug-eyed, wide-awake, 3:46 a.m.
I am thinking through our words
Again, and again, and again.

If a child isn’t learning,
don’t we have to change
the way we look at it
the way we work at it
the way we are set up for it?

Bug-eyed, wide-awake, 3:46 a.m.
I am thinking through our words
Again, and again, and again.

We make plans.
We set goals.
We call meetings.
We offer prescribed supports.
We meet the letter of the law.

Bug-eyed, wide-awake, 3:46 a.m.
I am thinking through our words
Again, and again, and again.

We want the system to work,
the child to fit within,
rather than
bending,
turning,
stretching
to meet the child.

Bug-eyed, wide-awake, 3:46 a.m.
I am thinking through our words
Again, and again, and again.

I’m not sleeping.
Are you sleeping?

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Bridge the Distance: An Oral History of COVID-19 in Poems Copyright © 2021 by Maureen Ingram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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