Junior High School, Southern Idaho

Junior High School, Southern Idaho Beige, the slump of wheat on the mountain which is not so much a mountain as a continuation of contour. Soon snow will come. In leisure suits and Stetsons the men arrive to see their sons humiliated in wrestling tights. The halls hum with tube light, the monotone of a Mormon minister baptizing a roomful of empty expressions, pure, staring. You hear a scream from the gymnasium, open your paper to the face of the Chicano boy who shot himself in the parking lot two days ago. And think it is a bell but only see the chord striking the hollow pipe of the flagpole. Snow begins winding through the empty branches near the ceiling of the Catholic church, just confetti now, slivers of paper on your coat, the tops of your shoes, but soon the small impress of your feet disappears. JOHN ADDlEGO* 'JOHN ADDIEGO is the Poetry Editor of the Northwest Review, and a Special Education Teacher's Aide at an elementary school in Eugene, Oregon. Some of his poetry has appeared in Cutbank, Poetry Now, Slackwater Review, anda few other small magazines. Raised in El Cerrito, California, he spent nine months as a VISTA· employee in Burley, Idaho. ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW99 ...