WORLD INSANE
HOW I LEFT TEACHING
AS TOLD THROUGH BRITNEY SPEARS SONG TITLES
Casey Catherine Moore
I didn’t think I’d go insane again,
but it Hit Me Baby, One More Time
I spent the 21-22 schoolyear Screaming and Shouting
and crying and hallucinating
Sometimes, I was a Criminal to the ones I loved most
The workplace was a stark Circus, a Toxic purgatory
from which the Dymphna prayer card
in my bra couldn’t save me
The Pieces of Me began to splinter and fracture
on the first day of summer PD, and I was in shards by graduation
I thought I would be a teacher Til’ The World Ends,
that I’d spend my life in a classroom
But in the end, I had to do something
to Kill the Lights on a career in classrooms
before it killed me
16 years, C-PTSD, and a bad year Drove Me Crazy,
but I glued the Pieces of Me back together with gold,
and I am Stronger than every yesterday
From the Bottom of My Broken Heart I found a way to heal
Now, I am Lucky because I know
My Prerogative is to Hold Me Closer
So if my mind Drives Me Crazy again,
I won’t Let Myself Be the Last to Know
Again
Casey Catherine Moore
Casey Catherine Moore (she/her) is a bipolar, bisexual poet, writing coach, and educator. She holds a Ph.D. in CompLit from the University of South Carolina with a focus on Latin poetry, invective, and gender studies. Casey’s work centers gender, sexuality, and dis/ability, and can be found in various academic and creative publications. Her Greco-Roman mythology and dis/ability-inspired poetry collection, Psyche, was published in September 2024 by Anxiety Press.