essay graphic done
by seventy-five percent:
mission accomplished
piano serenade while cooking
and a collegial shout out to the king
can make a hump day joyful
in this little life we live
a teacher’s drive-by:
surprise observation day
(six times a school year)
always on my toes
bending them close to standards
they’ll never quite meet
but we can all hope
(miracles do still happen–
just ask my cat’s tail!)
the kid argument
that plagues my mornings and nights
chips away my soul
somewhere between the data crunch
that swallows all planning time,
the tech issues that chew up a third of every class,
the common planning that gnaws into bitching about work,
emailing counsellors about kids who’ve bitten off more than they can chew,
grading grammar that nibbles away time with my own kids…
there’s a teacher waiting,
the entrée of this piecemeal,
ready to share the most delectable taste
of what this world asks and offers.
clouds can’t cover blue
with a reflection like this
waiting to bathe joy
a lonely park walk
can rejuvenate the soul
(my soul needs flowers)
yesterday we learned about sod
and homesteaders’ dreams being trampled by wind and hail and no water
and how they were tricked into
settling on free land.
nothing is free.
how they built brick by sod brick–
tiny houses not much taller than themselves,
and posed in front with shovels on the roof,
no time to take them down for the picture–
for what if it rained, or a snake crept in?
yesterday i thought i was a teacher,
and they were learning from me,
my immigrant students building up their vocabulary
brick by decoded brick.
nothing is ever what it seems.
today they entered and i asked them to write:
describe challenges when you moved to a new place.
and with the new words fresh on her tongue, she told me:
just like the homesteaders,
my family had to move to a new camp
and my father had to build a sod house,
no taller than that one in the picture.
and so my student taught today’s lesson:
one hundred fifty years later,
we are still making bricks
instead of trying to break them.
if you made the choice
to love and welcome, not hate
the world would change
sometimes all it takes
are some quiet lunch moments
to feel it’s worth it
Step Write Up 