how to extract a third grader

i'm sitting in the office doing whatever it is
i do in there
drink coffee
read email
school improvement
evaluations
communication
and i get the call from the third grade room
she says
cole will not do his work
and he's bothering other students
he needs to leave
and what i want to say is
no he doesn't need to leave
you need to teach
you need to do your job
you need to quit passing the monkey
but i don't
cuz it won't do any good
the truth is
the bad teachers stay bad
and you know who they are
you've had them before
it's about toleration for a year's worth
of incidental learning
so i get up from my chair
and walk down the hallway
when i enter he is about the room
spouting off multiplication facts to no one
in particular and he sees me out of the corner
of his eye so he goes to his desk and sits down
to wait
and i walk up and whisper real soft for awhile
to calm him down
he growls through most of it
sucks his cheeks in pushing his lips out
told me once he pretends he has big shark teeth
when he does that
tries to look scary
i lay down my card
say i need you to go to the office
he puts on his poker face
no i don't i'm staying right here
so i point at the card again
repeat myself
he says didn't you hear me i'm not going
i say yes i heard you
but what i wanna know is
are you gonna take these math papers with you
and do you need me to carry them
no response, just sits and stares
i continue
are you gonna take your pencil with you
or do you wanna borrow one from my office
he looks up at me
made contact
and when we get there, do you think you want to
sit in the blue chair or on the bench outside the door
and in one swift motion
he tilts his head back and slams it mightily
on the desk before him
wham
before saying
you just never give up, do you
and two minutes later
he's happily doing his math
in my office
while i'm back to emails
and coffee
and i love my job way too
damn much