Note to Teacher

I wish your stomach was not so flat,
your thighs so slim,
because you shouldn't believe

it's just your body
that pulls me like gravity
toward the center of your being.

That you can talk
a whole list of adverbs—
sillily, cattily, snarkily, intelligently—

does not make you Miss Modifier 2012,
though you do look good
in a swimsuit

and those grammar police eyeglasses.
I'd sure make sure I knew
my who from whom

if you would but grace me
with detention, where I would carefully write
in repetitively, perfect cursive: I love you.