Poets Kaveh Akbar, Dominique Townsend
and Ocean Vuong worked with Gyllenhaal
and Colangelo to write poems for the film The Kindergarten Teacher

Anna is beautiful.
Beautiful enough for me.
The sun hits her yellow house.
It’s almost like a sign from God,

… It gets so dark It stays dark, Even when I turn on the light.

Then, It gets so bright,
The flowers bow to the sun.

Do you remember the lion?
So quick and so strong.
He has no master when his master is sleeping.

And all his master does is sleep.

The bull stood alone in the backyard. So dark.

I opened the door and stepped out. Wind in the branches.

He watched me, Blue eyes. He kept breathing to stay alive.

I didn’t want him. I was just a boy.

Say yes,

Say yes, anyway.

Anna, get up.

Remember Loneliness is still time spent With the world.

Here’s the room with everyone in it.

Your dead friends passing through you Like wind through a wind chime.

Don’t be afraid, Anna.

The end of the road is so far ahead It is already Behind us.

Ocean Vuong