the good news is… all are invited

The Gospel According to Mrs. Farnell’s Pre-K Class

In Pre-K the whole class gets an invite to Tommy’s birthday.
He places the paper invites in our cubbies. There’s a helter-skelter sticker
sealing each one, proof that tiny hands did the work. So we,
the members of Mrs. Farnell’s Pre-K class, arrive at the park on Saturday.
We arrive whether or not we’ve ever built a sandcastle with Tommy.
We arrive whether or not we’ve ever shared half of our PB&J at lunch.
We arrive at the park on Saturday, with pigtails and balloons,
because we were invited.

And together we play tag, and we eat birthday cake, and we run barefoot in the grass.
Together, we sing Happy birthday to youuuuuu, so excited we can barely stand still.
Together, we momentarily forget that Chloe never gets picked for Red Rover and that Quinn cried in
class last week, because the park is not the playground and everyone was invited.
And when we load into our cars at the end of the day, with grass-stained knees, chocolate frosting
on our faces, and the awareness of inclusion, we say to our parents, This was the best day of my life.

Poem by
Rev. Sarah Speed