Today, Dave Etter, “Marcus Millsap: School Day Afternoon.” 

And here is what one current Homestead junior had to say in response to the poem:

In Dave Etter’s “Marcus Millsap: School Day Afternoon,” the narrator’s colloquial description of his afternoon showcases the meandering thoughts and gleeful appreciation of a child.  As the narrator bounces in the back of a yellow school bus, he decides to make himself a “sugar sandwich” and then look at “the birds/ and the gigantic blue silo” as soon as he gets home. The narrator’s love for sugary snacks and bird watching captures the essence of the child’s mind, focusing on the literal meaning of the words to create a laundry list of what he’s going to do in the afternoon. However, his attention quickly diverted as he goes on a tangent about how his family is going to the farm show but that “farming’s no fun,” and  he’d much rather “do something big” like “grow orange trees in a green house” or “drive a school bus and yell at the kids.” The narrator’s quick shift in focus is similar to that of a rambling child, never quite fleshing out a full thought and yet touching on a variety of subjects. Also, his perception of “big” things is skewed to reflect what is true in his world, a world where growing orange trees and driving buses are the noblest occupations in the world. When the narrator goes home, he grabs his sugar sandwich—a “brown sugar” sandwich, he notes—and then lies in the grass and thinks, “Imagine, a blue silo to stare at,/ and Mother not coming home till dark!” The narrator’s attention to unnecessary details like his brown sugar sandwich, his rapt attention for the blue silo, and his delight when he realizes his mother won’t be home until dark highlight the pleasure that can only be found in everyday life by the mind of a child. The narration of “Marcus Millsap: School Day Afternoon” successfully evokes the feelings of enchantment and the oddly detail-oriented thoughts of a child.