poetry: i, too, dislike it

If you are one of the many fans of the convoluted structure of the sestina, then this Valentine's Day poem is for you:

The students have all made their way 'round the desks
and placed their envelopes in the mailboxes of students.
Each recipient will surely appreciate every Valentine,
even if they know the gesture was mandatory.
For the children were required by their teacher
to distribute a card to everyone in the class.

Oh, to hope that childhood manners become class
in old age, that community can be learned at desks,
the idea of sharing planted in young minds by a teacher.
One day they will divide into popular and outcast students,
because social stratification has become mandatory.
And you can identify the future troublemaker's Valentine.

For there's blood in place of ink on only one Valentine,
the one distributed by a child who scares the class.
The boy for whom psychological tests are mandatory,
the boy who draws skulls on his arms and his desks,
and whispers "You'll get yours" to his fellow students.
Yes, he once threw a history book at the teacher,

And wears a leather jacket to intimidate said teacher,
like that punk on "Family Ties" played by Scott Valentine,
who was actually one of Lee Strasberg's students.
Well, I don't know if he was ever technically in Strasberg's class,
but he did spend time behind New York's Actor's Studio's desks,
where being in the audience of James Lipton's show is now mandatory.

Brits should vote for David Cameron if they demand a Tory,
assuming they can drag themselves away from their tea. Cher
was in the film Mask with Eric Stoltz, who hasn't won Drama Desks,
but worked in a Showtime series by the writers of Valentine,
a horror movie where a boy kills girls from his high school class
years later to punish their cruelty when they were students.

Actor Michael J. Fox played a wide variety of students
in his career, and I believe it is almost mandatory
to mention that his Back to the Future role as class
clown Marty McFly, who sees Doc Brown as a teacher,
was originally given to Mr. Stoltz. Anyway, the Valentine
cards I was talking about earlier sit on the desks

of the class, enjoyed by most students.
And the teacher who made sharing mandatory
imagines fucking Scott Valentine in 1986, on desks.