They talked on the radio today

They talked on the radio today

about new ways to teach science.

And all I could think of was Mr. Henderson,

ninth grade, and the smell of formaldehyde.

He sucked the wonder out of everything.

The frog, splayed open on the tray,

just diagrams. Mitosis on the chalkboard,

cell division, endless, gray.

He had a way of flattening awe,

of making the miracle of life

into a chore, a set of rules.

And I never looked at a petri dish

the same way again.

Just a series of joyless facts.