They call me to the Principal’s.
Which isn’t odd. I often win
Some scholarship or contest prize.
We had a few this Christmas Week.
I also am on Santa’s List
For full attendance round the year.
The English teacher’s stoic face
Is all the warning I receive
Before receiving to my face
The Christian hand of Sister B.,
Who holds the staff of Principal,
When Sister K. is out on leave.
I see the Nativity Star
Resplendent in my smarting eyes,
As smarting cheek receives again
The Christian touch of bamboo stick.
She points to where my essay lies,
To words she’s circled out in red:
“If Jesus is of virgin birth,
Is Jesus, then, the first to break
His Mother’s sacred Maidenhead?”
I point to where the title reads,
“What will you ask of Santa Claus?”
And picking up her Pilate pen,
I cross my name off Santa’s List.
Minakhi Misra 