Because she said she didn’t know
What it was, said a high-schooler
To her best friend in the lot
Adjacent the bakery
Where kids hung out after school.
What kind of teacher’s never
Heard of Camembert cheese? the friend
Replied. How sheltered is she?
You mean, like, how ignorant?
The girls laughed delightedly.
The ignorance of adults
Peaks just before one joins them,
When one still has some distance,
A last shred of perspective.
The spare adult listening
Just wanted to know one thing—
What classes did this teacher
Give instruction in? Adults
Don’t care all that much about
Ignorance, but adults hunt
Down vulnerability,
Usually by specialty.
What’s your specialty’s status?
And what’s your status within
Your established soecialty?
Ignorance of cheese is fine
For engineers. Janitors
Don’t have much status to keep.
But high school teachers waver
Between the ranks, on the brink
Of pity, on the margin
Of respectability.
Adults are slow. The gossip
Had moved with the laughing teens
Back into the bakery.
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