The Bell

The bell rang and we were released—
the classroom emptied in the ancient way,
the playground receiving us with its particular noise,
the ten minutes that redeemed the day.

We ran with the specific joy of the unconfined,
we played with the urgency of the briefly free,
we were ourselves completely in that window—
children being precisely what children be.

The school bell is the first clock we are given,
the first governance of our time by others—
but the playground bell is the best instruction:
that freedom follows discipline, sisters and brothers.
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