Vornox

I'm not from here,
he tells the kids at his new school,
letting them think about it.

Nearly a year older,
he is the only boy there
who can leap over the sandbox
in a single bound.
Wins every race,
is bigger and stronger
than anyone else in
their small world.

He shows them odd-shaped stones
from his pocket, I get my powers from these.
Hands in his homework
written in strange squiggly symbols.
Reads his book report aloud
in a new language.
Miss Davis sighs,
Vernon, see me after school please.
He extends his arms upward in a V-shape.
My name is Vornox.
When school resumes in the fall
he is not there.

Mary Ellen Seidel
5/15/2002