In grade school
only some of the information
excites the learner,
like learning the origin
of the barber pole,
the practice of leaching
our first confrontation
with voluntary bleeding.

And discovering Miss Astor,
a real person in history,
not merely a derisive term
to insult someone’s
pomposity.

Or syllables,
that intermediary between
letters and words,
a single sound,
standing alone.