Poem: Life Lesson

Life Lesson

In school we were given
seeds that day, shown
the way to plant them
inside the small
plastic pots, how
deep inside and, too,
the right amount
of dirt to surround
it with.  We were
tasked with nurturing
those beings, bringing
them into the world:
we watered them
each day, waiting,
watching for the small
sprouts to begin
bursting forth.  I do
not know how long
it took, days, maybe
a week or two, but
soon their were stems
working their way out,
breaking the dark
soil with their first
tendrils.  All the other
pots, that is, mine
never seemed to sprout.
The teacher did not
believe I had done
what the others had,
thought I must
never have watered,
just did not care,
graded me a failure
because I could not
make a thing grow,
because I could not
instigate life,
because I was the only
one at whose pot
remained empty
of anything but dirt/