Lowell Jaeger’s most recent poem to appear here was Saving Jesus (April 2012).

She’s Wet Her Pants
By Lowell Jaeger

 … and I’m the only soul
they’ve been able to reach
on my granddaughter’s
school emergency call list.
Okay, I’m on my way,
I tell the school secretary.

I’m secretly glad
to lock my office door
and escape hours early
into the cold sunshine
on fresh snow.
Worried too,
about the kid in question–
knowing how tough classmates
can be against each other.
Thinking, as I drive, about castoffs
in every classroom who fight
inside the rest of their lives
to live down their own brand 
of public disgrace.

The secretary sounded peeved, frazzled.
She’ll need a change, she said.
We can’t help her with that.
She uses that same tone
when I step up to her counter,
identify myself, take miss pee-pants
by the hand and scram.

Your truck matches my coat–red,
my granddaughter tells me in the K-Mart lot.
Yeah, I say, I wanted it
to match. We choose a cheery
six-pack of pastel undies
and a pair of soft pink sweats.

I don’t ask if she wants
to go back to class. We ride,
silent. She watches out the window.
We opt for ice cream instead.