THE SHOEBOX

It was a long bus ride

living with the fear, the threat,

that bullies would take from you—

even kill—what you carried

from your 3rd grade science class

with care, home.

Safe and proud, you entered the house

knowing you had kept a thing from harm–

and knowing

just where you'd put it,

the shoebox:

beside all your Oz books.

What the box contained

was the stuff of dreams, magic,

that, if you were careful enough,

nurturing enough,

might carry you,

like Dorothy,

from twisters

to yellow brick roads.