Welcome Back Ceremonies
- Dec 22, 2025
- 1 min read
By Evan Freemyer
are embarrassing.
White administrators called to the stage
with rap music
Bring ‘em out, Bring ‘em out!
A slice of wonder bread
in a Men’s Warehouse suit
pumping his hands,
Raising the Roof!
In his head, he thinks
‘C’mon, you fuckers, like we practiced!’
They want us to cheer
Scream our heads off:
“Are you fired up?”
“We are!”
“Teachers! ARE YOU FIRED UP?”
“YES!”
Percent increases on state tests
behind him on a giant screen.
But as our Superintendent
has an orgasm over Workplace Learning,
I think about Dr. Vorthmann,
Director of Curriculum,
who quit last year.
Farmer Vorthmann, he goes by now
like his dad did, and his dad’s dad before him.
I imagine him squatted down in his field,
sweat soaked by 9AM,
the haze of an Iowa August
heavy above him.
He is thumbing a stalk on a soybean plant–
just pods with nothing in them–
“August rain makes soybeans,” he whispers
and looks up at the blue-brown sky
to see if it might relent.
Pareidolia by the Northwest Entrance
By Evan Freemyer
Why can’t poets just say what they mean?
-Every one of my students.
Above the ornamental facade
growing out of the gutter
a two-year-old sapling
in the shade of its mother,
and the words
“For All Children of All People”
written in the stone underneath.
Evan Freemyer is (still) an English teacher, working at Thomas Jefferson High School in Council Bluffs, IA. This is his first publication!
