After Hours in Kindergarten

It’s geography week at school.

The kindergarten halls are lined

with identical pictures: Mrs. Benton’s

penguins, repeated blobs in black and white.

I move out of the polar regions.

What is that odd smell hiding beneath

disinfectant? On a low table I find

white styrofoam painted mud-brown,

notched rectangles that once enclosed

computer components, now glued

in a standing row, topped with toilet paper rolls,

also painted, topped with little paper

Chinese flags, yellow stars on red.

Why, it’s the Great Wall of China!

Styrofoam walls, cardboard watch towers

— I kneel to look closely —

one of the wonders of the world,

here between the girl’s bathroom

and the janitor’s closet,

fantastic in fluorescent light.