Our teacher drills holes and knots strings, inside two politically correct soup cans so we can talk to each other with rusty finger prints 

and that’s when the trouble starts

“Did you just tell me to go swallow a lint pill?”

“That’s  a stupid thing to say!”

(and I pretend ) “I can’t hear you”

and pull my part of the string when you’re not noticing, 

so you pull back…right in front of my face and I look at the teacher to see if she notices how rude you are 

and that’s when 

the string snaps

the school bell rings

and we leave soup cans rattling around on the floor, 

grab the soccer balls  and run out to the playground