We leaders reassure them with a smile
-- the clumps of parents seeing off their kids,
some look at us as though we were large squids,
we try to look in charge and versatile.
The busdriver's impatience hits a peak,
he revs the brakes as if he'll leave alone
without the passengers who with a groan
have longed for this departure for a week.
At last they're all aboard, the parents wave,
the busdriver sets off with spinning wheels,
the kids let out wild whoops and high-pitched squeels,
the leaders pray for lives that God will save.
But I alone survey the happy kids
and wish that we'd just shut our yapping lids.