Beat the Heat

sometimes a cool breeze
 blowing grass from shady porch
 is all a day needs
 
 

Brown Palace

birthday hotel tea
 in my mother’s favorite place
 blessed with one more year
 
 

Flower Power

what we need this June
 is blooming summer beauty
 to refresh our lives
 
 

A Few of My 57 Curriculum Training Haikus

8:15
 summer holidays:
 curriculum training hell
 for texts i won’t teach
 
 8:25
 at least we get paid
 for wasted time this Monday
 (planning my vacay)
 
 9:00
 psycho white girl texts
 with teen serial killers:
 way to start the year.
 
 9:13
 unit one: three essays?
 complex texts, presentations…
 for kids who don’t read
 
 10:02
 college and career:
 key words to pressure teachers
 to make miracles.
 
 10:48
 standards-based rulers
 measure how inadequate
 their understanding is
 
 11:21
 what the fuck is this?
 we’re making popcorn today?
 kernels are for birds
 
 11:35
 connect to their lives
 teen rebellion feeds us all
 and sucks life from us
 
 11:42
 i’ll catch you some notes:
 a real, low-level class–
 let’s try a scaffold
 
 11:49
 these questions lack hope
 for virtually all our kids
 we’re adding rigor?
 
 11:53
 curriculum rocks
 when i write it for my kids
 so why am i here?
 
 12:47
 can we read the texts,
 plan together with our teams,
 stop mindless bullshit?
 
 1:42
 anchor my thoughts, please:
 texts are not relatable
 to kids in my class
 
 2:24 (Heinz 57)
 i’m making ketchup
 though it sure as fuck needs spice
 just like this training

Love Will Live

in this tragic life
 whose pain touches all of us
 we must find beauty
 
 around the curved path,
 falling angel-like from trees,
 a blue mountain view,
 
 the eyes of a child,
 the joy of family outings–
 hope that love will live
 
 

Location:S Leyden St,Denver,United States

All in a Life’s Work

time to renew flames
 of our early married years
 by shining old wood
 
 

Just a Touch

 summer sky in soft shades of blue,
 saying good night to another dream house day,
 my oldest baking brownies in the kitchen
 (running out for recipe updates)
 all tucked behind the shallow breeze
 tickling the quaking aspen leaves
 
 and it’s so temporarily beautiful,
 this sky, this evening summer vacay moment,
 i want to trap it here in this lens,
 in this heart,
 in this life,
 and wrap my arms around
 the subtle hint of pink clouds
 before they disappear
 
 

The Truth Hurts

entrepreneurs
 earned more than i did today
 selling lemonade
 
 

Loan Forgiveness

day started with angst:
 with backtalk and attitude
 lost in a battle
 
 midday mellowing
 came with a surprise measure
 of all my hard work
 
 by evening? they won.
 their debts forgiven–for friends,
 summer, being kids.
 
 

Keepsake

they’ve asked to return
 every year on the same date
 hoping for magic
 
 (it’s found in sunsets,
 impossible mountain views
 we don’t have at home)
 
 i would give them gold
 that rests at mountain bases
 if i had god’s touch
 
 i’d throw in rainbows,
 the best birth town visit yet,
 Colorado love
 
 we could come back here–
 try to capture this bright view–
 or keep it with us
 
 Always.