When university tells you classes will be online, It won’t be the first time you’ve heard this. It is early, and of course they are not even there to tell you this in person, But from a cold, voiceless email. And of course, you will smile. Because it sounds like empathy, Because you heard the bells of hope ringing quietly, Because universities have handed these words to Students across the country like strawberries sat in sunlight for too long – warm, young, easily crushed, waiting to see sugared stomachs turn sickly their vines will stretch from one part of the country to the other and your face, your mouth, still full of strawberries will say; here, Take these things I have bought to be closer to you. My notebook, waiting to be folded into a cheque, And slipped into soil that has not grown anything for years. I will remember I felt safe in that mouth, And how they grew hungry With bells ringing out somewhere loudly, loudly, loudly. after Edwin Booney's 'When a Boy Tells You He Loves You'
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