Colorado beach
is a stream and campfire
my relaxation
Waterfront
Colorado beach
is a stream and campfire
my relaxation
poetry
Folktale
so the opposite
mud lightning storm Pilot stuck
i’ll step in the mud
you will cry, complain
say this trip is time’s vengeance
but i will find help
through lightning, thunder
better than sickness and health
i will walk through mud
and find solutions
to every last thing you hate
yet me you soooo love
and i will get help
and tow you from hell. and back.
my love is that. deep.
misadventure? tale.
that is my thought as i walk.
you and i? tale told.
Weights and Measures
a half day of waste
for undeserving seniors
with enough credits
the choices they make
based on so few students’ needs
hurt everyone else
education’s weight
while in line we stand. and wait.
weigh in: their way out
can they hold their weight?
while the society waits
an old way to weigh?
let’s measure anew
let loose the weight we all bear
find another weigh
Battlefield
another battle
is it the rain, the music?
or just being twelve?
preteen mood swings break
my relationship with my
once-sweet little girl
i try to stay calm
bring forth my yoga breathing
my inner smile
but rain keeps beating
stinging our faces with tears
will i lose this war?
Corners
what you can’t see here
cornered by twilight sun-clouds
i hold in my heart
the rays sparkling
in near-invisible rain
quiet end to day
corner of my heart
sparkling in silver streaks
silver streets of home
A Visit from Charles Schwab
a day off of work
for three hours with students
plus!–small donation
refugees’ lives
summarized in two chapters,
questions that plague them
if they saw their day,
their actual student day,
they might learn something
instead, they murmur
over plot complexities
and students’ English
they might realize,
when to mansions they return,
the true complex plot:
they can’t give answers
to high school reading questions
nor inequity
work, in equities:
invest in students, not stocks.
buy them a future.
Yesterday…
the very next day
frustration rules parenthood
can’t i just have peace?
That Reminder of Parenthood
i didn’t get a photo
of that bright face looking out from the crowd
of the circle of middle school spur-of-the-moment dancers
jamming to a Middle Eastern tune
with their white black brown faces
and her Latin American dress spinning out from under
a tunnel of happiness
there is no way
no possible way
my phone could have captured
the enraptured joy of that moment
of the confidence instilled back into my
fifth-grade-turned-sour timid child
who has found her place
in the oft-militaristic
ever-loving ever-respectful
intensity of love
that is this school
and when i see those
bright twelve-year-old eyes
shining back at me
because she knows i know
(to pain and back, we’ve been)
it is that moment of parenthood
that reminder of why we are parents
why we bring them into this world
and spend our Saturday nights inside a school
eating foods from around the world
listening to the intricate threads that sew together our humanity
why we love
why we live
why we still hope
for a better tomorrow
Off the List!!
humility lost
entitled generation
device-dependent
scream at teacher’s gift??
made-from-scratch brownies
that they don’t deserve
how dare they demand
a prize for unfinished work–
have i taught them this?
have they learned from me
that talking back, goofing off
are the new class norms?
my busted attempt
at inspiration, this May
bring on summer, PLEASE!!!
Cuando Era Puertorriqueña
one out of seven
fought back poverty with books
same family, same chance
i see my students
make these same choices–young! yet–
old enough to know
should i fight for them?
for a dream they look for?
or is it my dream?
this i’ll never know
but i’d be one of seven
and fight my way out
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