the kid argument
that plagues my mornings and nights
chips away my soul
education
Bites and Pieces
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.
Introverted Beauty
a lonely park walk
can rejuvenate the soul
(my soul needs flowers)
Bricklaying
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.
Rediscovering Respect
after a long walk
sun silences the screaming
ringing in my ears
Why I Teach
sometimes all it takes
are some quiet lunch moments
to feel it’s worth it
First Day of Middle School
gone far too quickly
are my two little chickies
growing up too fast
Day Twenty, Road Trip 2016
in the man’s big house
they built him a three-room suite;
his children lived here:
remnants of slave life:
hard-hitting and far-reaching
(Black Lives Matter. Now?)
they dug up red clay
to lay every brick … by brick,
by breaking their backs
his famous status:
founder of freedom, writer
(declared our country)
brick by brick by brick
he laid his lies and kept his slaves
and wrote our future
and we swallow it
and throw coins at his gravestone
and try to forgive
they all shared this view–
from the big house; the slave house;
the land formed by God
and so we move on,
brick by brick by road by road
to see its beauty
Roots
history’s learned best
when you can see it firsthand
in a child’s eyes
Summer Wash
just in time for me:
home visits and meetings done–
rain, clean out this heat!
let summer begin
with a fresh layer of green,
a rushing river
an evening walk
through gardens and mysteries,
a dream awakened
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