school work - a poem

I used to sit at my desk
really, at the a.m. radio sitting on it,
supposing to do school work,

I would hear a happy song about love
then another about sadness in losing
another

something inside me, musical,
attuned to the wires on the desk,
floated with strains of Brahms,
exulted at Elton John, and
felt low listening to 'Jackie Blue',

the next day in school
when taking tests, or demanded
to solve a problem on the board,
the music stayed with me,

I would attempt to recall what
had been learned the previous night,
when all I could do was dance,
not outrightly, there in school,
but by taps of my toes, drummings
of my fingers,

only when the music subsided
in the daylight of others
did I march forward through math,
the reptile in me calculating
how long until I would be home