Nobody knows until it’s too late & the Marine is on your doorstep with a folded flag (those flags are extra starched)
Nobody knows when your heart stops & the world stops & you freeze in place
Nobody knows how tears somehow become the blood of your brother or your dad or your mom or your anybody and you can taste them & have them fade but they never exactly wash away
Nobody knows except me & that Marine in his dress blues & white gloves (to say his hands are innocent of blood) is standing in front of me with an extra-starched flag with a generic apology arms out but not holding up my fallen body or my fallen brother.
— Andréa Yancey Franklin High School, Portland, Oregon
Andréa Yancey wrote this poem after watching Michael Moore’s film Fahrenheit 9/11. When Franklin High School teachers Bill Bigelow, Sandra Childs, and Julie Treick O’Neill were asked to write the teaching guide for Moore’s film, 30 Franklin students volunteered to return to school late in June to watch the film and participate in a series of lessons. Students brainstormed writing ideas immediately after viewing Fahrenheit 9/11. Almost everyone chose to write on some aspect of the Iraq war. For further teaching ideas on the war and terrorism, visit Rethinking Schools online at www.rethinkingschools.org.
Rethinking Schools is looking for students who write or create art, illustration, or photography and would like to contribute to this page. Please send submissions to Catherine Capellaro, Managing Editor, Rethinking Schools, 1001 E. Keefe Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53212.
