Stars in Class
Our teacher would give out stars –
gold stars to the bright supernovas,
silver for the hard-working planets,
and none for the boy at the back
a black hole that sucked
in everything she threw at him
and gave back nothing.
The children in his orbit
felt their desks shift
beneath their pens,
saw books fly past,
large multi-winged bats
homing to a cave mouth.
Soon their chairs crashed
and the children slipped,
hung on to desk legs,
before crying disappeared.
Sam has imploded again, sighed the teacher.
Don’t look, it will only encourage him.
Zoe Brooks lives in Gloucestershire. She has been published in Dreamcatcher, Prole, Obsessed With Pipework, Fenland Reed, and The Rialto. Her collection Owl Unbound will be published by Indigo Dreams in 2020. Writing blog: http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com/