What would she have done By Ted Millar

What would she have done?

If that teacher had had a gun
when her student pulled one from his desk,
the question is, what would she have done?
 
The Pokemon cards the boy held were fun,
but it was time for him to take a spelling test.
If that teacher had had a gun
 
they both could claim retaliation
for ills unspoken under duress.
The question is: what would she have done?
 
The student watched his father pull it on someone
once, and it seemed to elicit the best
response. If that teacher had had a gun,
 
she might have shot that father's son.
There would be no accounting for the rest.
The question is: what would she have done?
 
What about you?  Would you turn and run?
In that situation it's anybody's guess.
If you were that teacher and had a gun,
the question is: what would you have done?

Ted Millar teaches English at Mahopac High School and composition at Dutchess Community College. He resides in New York’s Hudson Valley with his wife and two children.  His previous work has appeared or will appear in Little Somethings Press, Words & Whispers, Valley Voices, Better Than Starbucks, Straight Forward Poetry, Reflecting Pool: Poets and the Creative Process (Codhill Press, 2018), Crossways, Caesura, Circle Show, The Broke Bohemian, The Voices Project, Third Wednesday, Tiny Poetry: Macropoetics, Scintilla, GFT Press, Inklette, The Grief Diaries, Cactus Heart, Aji, Wordpool Press, The Artistic Muse, Chronogram, Brickplight and Inkwell. He was also among 65 poets to have work accepted for the 2018 Arts Mid-Hudson exhibit Artists Respond to Poetry.