“Don’t give kids any gifts tied to reading”
By Joanne Durham
—One on a list of restrictions from the Sarasota County School District,
in response to Florida HB1467, posted on Twitter
Go then, pack away Honey I Love, unfit title
for eight-year-olds. Hide Can I Touch Your Hair?
braided with so much empathy it must be banned. Destroy
A Caribbean Dozen, the book Robert finds first thing
each morning, which sometimes gets him through the day
without stabbing a classmate with his pencil. “I practiced
the poem from Haiti,” he tells me. Remove Good Books,
Good Times (the editor was gay). Search Daryl before
he goes home, be sure there’s no Pocketful of Poems
he’s hidden to read with a flashlight under his covers. Snatch
Out of Wonder out of Eddie’s hands as he and Dora share
the rocking chair, puzzling over “chasing justice”
and “smile like moon.” She teaches him the hard words,
he shows her the funny part about alphabet soup –
choosing their favorite books, they give each other
gifts they must unlearn to give. Sanitize the empty
poetry shelf just in case some trace of joy remains.
Joanne Durham is the author of To Drink from a Wider Bowl, winner of the Sinclair Poetry Prize (Evening Street Press 2022) and the forthcoming On Shifting Shoals (Kelsay Books). Her poetry appears in Poetry East, CALYX, Chautauqua, Wordpeace, Rise-Up Review and many other journals and anthologies. She lives on the North Carolina Coast, with the ocean as her backyard and muse. Visist her website at joannedurham.com.
Editor’s note: You can help stop book banning by opposing book challenges at your library’s and schools. Find information and support from the following “freedom to read” organizations.
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