Mr. Polaski Always Said

Image of a life-size cutout in the shape of a man connected to wires and technology, pointing his finger. — "Man" by Sophia Park

You couldn’t win a spelling bee against your shoe, and If your dog ate your homework, it’d die of starvation, and Grades are in and here I thought I was all out of Fs to give, and in response, we all said Mr. Polaski was a dick, we, the bathroom vaping kids, the detention kids, the summer school kids, the 2.3 GPA kids, the our parents haven’t checked our homework since elementary school kids, the no curfew on a school night kids, the can you give us extra credit so we can graduate kids, and Mr. Polaski, who confiscated our vapes, who monitored our detentions, who proctored our summer schools, who accepted our extra credit, our curmudgeon English teacher, Mr. Polaski, who watched us navigate the rickety steps onto the graduation stage in our robes, shake the limp, clammy hand of the principal, hold the ceremonial diploma for a picture, scan the crowd for family we knew weren’t coming, listen as the principal recited bland Congratulations, stumble past the line of administrators with plastered-on smiles, shuffle off the stage not knowing where to go, except to where he, Mr. Polaski, waited for us, wolf-whistling with two saliva-soaked fingers, punching each of us on the arm hard enough to bruise, shouting, louder than the cheering families of the honor roll kids, You did it! You fucking idiots did it!

about the author

Mario Aliberto III's stories appear in Fractured Lit, trampset, Tahoma Literary Review, and others. His debut chapbook, All the Dead We Have Yet to Bury, is scheduled for publication with Chestnut Review in early 2025. He lives in Tampa Bay with his wife and daughters, and yet the dog still runs the house. Twitter: @marioaliberto3.

about the artist

Sophia Park is an eleventh grader attending Yongsan International School of Seoul in Korea. Her art is influenced by her daily life activities, and she enjoys summer rain, cool river breeze at night and listening to music while walking the busy city streets of Seoul. Sophia will be applying to US colleges this year.