Morning Duty

The hungry ones come early for breakfast

I see them approaching as I patrol the sidewalk that leads to the cafeteria

                    Some haven’t
                    eaten
                    since yesterday
                    at lunch

To each
I offer
                    Good morning!
                    Welcome to school!

They hurry past
                    eyes down
                    hoodies draped
                    over their heads

like monks at vespers

An angry god has brought us together to this moment

                    Well-fed white man
                    in his late fifties
                    who hungers for death

beaming benevolently

                    at the famished
                    children
                    who get devoured

by life

When my morning duty is done next quarter,

I’ll sit at my desk before school

                    and another teacher
                    will shepherd
                    the starving

fatten them up
before the slaughter

Lee Irby is the author of three novels, all published with Doubleday. He is a Fellow of the Florida Studies Program at the University of South Florida. Currently, he teaches middle school.