Doctor’s Note

A Poem

Photo by Ryan Jacobson on Unsplash

The joke of all jokes
is telling me, a parent,
that my kid needs a doctor’s note
to be excused for being sick
But what’s the excuse for
not believing parents about
their own child’s illness?

Do you think I will cover for my child
so they can have a day off from the monotony
of standardized schooling?
Yes. Yes, I will cover for my child
when it’s just too much
like the 5:30 am wakeup or
the 10:45 am lunch period or
the willingness of teachers to
mark a kid late when they know
that the lateness is due to the
two-lane pile up inside the grounds
of the school which takes ten minutes
to get from end to end, completely
outside of a parent’s control

You teach my child
antiquated math year after year,
but make mental health an eighth
of a Health class, which is a
quarter of a school year
but you wonder why I allow
personal mental health days
to take time away from the smell
of…