a redemptive hike
tolerably steep, pretty
to a glacier’s start
disappearing ice
is one reason for this trip
cold is beautiful
snowfields beat out scree
a challenge i can live with
and get to slide down
i’m hours faster
than the warning on their map
hiking solo wins!
marmot friends tease me
better than seeing a bear
top of world views
paddle-boarding salt
first time the three of us
(includes SUP)
shopping in the sun
on this quirky “spit” boardwalk
summer in Homer
time is running out
before i am alone here
soaking up smiles
acceptance settles
as we see the bright blue sky
(first time in two weeks)
An expensive hike
yet easy, green, glacial blue
make it worth millions
where can you see ice
floating from nearby glacier
as You eat your lunch?
Alaska wins us
though it can’t fully win her
(my pup will save me)
she’s bought the ticket
leaving me brokenhearted
as more rain plagues us
no blue sky peak views
in this cold and dreary state
matching my sad mood
a bit of comfort
At Homer vacation home
(luxury send-off?)
i can’t change her mind
Yet can face the great alone
(i know how to drive)
still fighting back tears
we honor native cultures
for July Fourth truth
how hard their lives were
yet their innovations rocked
our lame modern needs
from homes under sod
to sunglasses for seal hunts
they made a life here
their tenacious art
built in the midst of winter
reminds me of hope
so i paint a grin
and take them our one last time
crab legs included
every pretty pic
from our day in Anchorage
is marred by her news
tears will follow me
across Alaska, Al-Can
till I’m in his arms
the hike from hell wins
first with a grizzly loping
(who turned into woods)
then the sunrise view
of the flawless Lake Kathleen
before the ascent
the cloud at the peak?
kind of ruined my dream view
until the descent
the descent from hell
with steep scree the whole way down
even dog is stressed
how to recover?
book hotel three hours down
this horrible road
I’m already starting to count semesters left, though I have nearly a decade to win my pension. I have seventeen left. Seventeen semesters to deal with the pain, the argument, the love/hate relationship I have with this career, and today it hurts me more than it helps me.
Why is he in the hallway now, laughing his ass off and GOOFING OFF WITH HIS FRIENDS? Why do I hear his voice, after he cheated on her, after he convinced her back, after she came in distraught with handmarks on her arm, her breakfast tossed to the floor, his controlling words still ringing in her ears? Why did I call the dean, the assistant principal, who came jogging to my classroom to extricate her, to hear her story, ONLY TO HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE HALLWAY three hours later? Why wasn’t he sent home, after the long list of inappropriate behavior, everything from intentionally using racial slurs to skipping class to cussing out the admin to refusing to do work to taking advantage of a girl in the bathroom and allowing his friend to film it and post it online…
Seventeen semesters left of arguing with kids about their phones, convincing them that English is important, and telling those in charge to do something about kids who should be nowhere near this school.
And sometimes it feels like seventeen lifetimes.
i'm back at work today
after a solid two weeks
of rest and relaxation
in which i found this schedule
from my first job
age seventeen
(started there at sixteen)
where i'm scheduled for all but four days
of July of '95
and i've never stopped since.
really stopped.
even when i was
home with the babies
i watched other people's babies
and the two weeks
thirty years past due
just seems
so
short
What can I buy with $1000?
A color printer for my classroom so I can make posters pop for my Newcomer students. Eighteen credits at ISU so I can try to earn a livable wage with a salary lane change. A week in a hotel for one of my students and his family who were out on the streets.
What can you buy with $1000?
The last shred of dignity that DPS promised on our September paychecks. You said you kept your promise with extra pay for hard-to-serve positions and bonuses, a 2.06% raise, and $1000.
But guess what? We didn’t receive the $1000 that you are holding because our union wants arbitration against your broken promise. We only got the watered-down raise.
Where is it? Where is the 5.2% COLA raise that you agreed to?
When my student’s family was living in a tent, I asked my English colleagues at South for as much money as they could spare. Within a day, I had collected more than $1000 to keep this family off the street for a week. Why did I ask when we’re all strapped for cash, when gas and food prices and mortgage interest rates keep so many of us from paying our bills?
Because that is what I do. I teach Newcomers who came here for a better life. I work with generous colleagues who would reach into their nearly-empty pockets to come up with $1000 because it matters to a student. A family. A life.
How else can I earn $1000, or a real raise? From my second job as an adjunct professor, where, if the classes don’t get canceled before they begin, I might earn $1000 extra a month to make up for the gaps in my DPS paycheck? From teaching summer school, doing ISA paperwork, coaching, directing, or after-school supervision?
Why isn’t what I do in a day, in a school year, enough to earn $1000 of your respect? To earn 5.2% of your respect?
I plan lessons and grade papers for four preps. I have a classroom of students who just arrived from all over the world and speak seven different languages. I engage them in English, help them cope with trauma, show them where our food bank is, take them on excursions across the city, teach them about cultural norms, and communicate with their families about their never-ending physical and emotional needs. I have kids who have never held a pencil and don’t know their letters in their home language and kids who could write a novel in Spanish, and I work my ass off to meet all of their needs, even if it means giving them $1000.
What I don’t have is a salary proving that DPS believes that what I do is respectable and professional. What I don’t have is my promised COLA.
DPS, you agreed to support your teachers with a real raise, and you couldn’t even give us $1000. If a picture is worth 1000 words, I hope my words are worth at least $1000.
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