Very Young

title inspired by Anne Sexton’s “Young”

by Marion Deutsche Cohen

Foreign people were very quiet and blonde.

They wore sunbonnets, fully gathered skirts, and wooden shoes.

Foreign children never chanted “No more teachers’ dirty looks”

nor snickered “This place is saved, and not for you.”

And Jeanette van Dyke and Peter van Gilder didn’t adjust beautifully to the Harrison

   School dialect

but played only with each other

sometimes even alone.