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And so little Danny stepped of the brand new shiny plane and he went to school the very first day He noticed that everyone was wearing old tattered cardboard boxes on their head And on these boxes in the middle was a word written in thick black ink He walked into the classroom, and sat in the middle Wondering why everyone had brought their boxes The teacher peered at him through the cut hole in her box But said nothing Maybe Danny should go call his mommy and Daddy , ask them what to do He had a box, yes, but it was one that he hardly used One that he hardly put on, and when he did, it was only for a short time When he filled to application to school When he took a class on ethnic gender studies Nobody he knew at home wore his or her box all the time In fact, he didn't even know where his box was Maybe he had left it at home But here in school it was different The box was a badge Some people walked around proudly, strutting and gloating Something worth fighting for Others glared at those who had different boxes, nodding to themselves always eyeing People with certain Boxes wouldn't talk to each other Ignored each other The next day Danny decided to get a box He found one in the trash room Used, old, but it was a box He ripped an eyehole and put it on "Where's your ink?" the teacher asked Danny "Yes, where?" the girl next to him asked "I don't understand" Danny replied The teacher came with a smelly pen Wrote a word on his box Later on Danny noticed that some people were friendlier to him They would talk to him Smiling through the eye holes of their own boxes Staring at the mark the teacher had made But sometimes Danny would wonder why these people had never talked to him before When he had a blank box Or When he had no box at all Danny took off his box for a moment and looked it over The ink didn't fit the box So he ripped new eyeholes and turned in sideways Later on someone else commented on the blank front Inked it, and went on their way And so Danny turned the box again Inked Turned Ink Turn Pretty soon there were so many holes So many penmarks That Danny could smell the chemical tint in a haze around him always He was not used to this At home boxes were more of a friendly commodity Something that you would put on your head and draw faces on Laugh and play And then when you were done You could take them off And be you again Of course you had to wear them sometimes At formal dinners At church sometimes Once in a while with friends On TV and in the news people wore their boxes But that was because it was on TV Once in a while people would fight over their boxes But only once in a while Usually people would carry their box But never put them on Never over their head That's how it was At home At the end of the semester Danny went home Stepped off the plane In the humid heat he stripped off his box But pieces of it had ripped off and stuck to the perspiration in his hair |