Pandemic

I.

The women are spread among old student desks.
Row upon row faces upturned to the chalkboard.
Ghostly looping chains noun verb adjective adverb
connecting. A spiked pencil rolls past three desks.
This is a sentence for freedom period

II.

The women learn to write paragraphs five sentences long. Topic with four supporting statements. A high school diploma is the end not a beginning. Ears are pressed to the ceiling. Whisper stop here there be dragons.

III.

The women are infecting the world with their stories. The ones that Create us. The prison has no vaccine for this plague and cannot stop the flood of ideas. Education is the true escape, an obituary for the system. Send no flowers, reports of the death of incarceration were not greatly exaggerated.