hidden behind mask
is my sixteen-year-old girl
(her pandemic grin)
i hope to win her
with walks, drives, conversations
just like the old days
Quarantine Scenario #437
stress
Pink Limbs
sometimes the sunrise
is the best part of the day
(before darkness falls)
Pandemic Teaching
One of my students just called me and in his very broken English told me I upset him in class today because I wasn’t on screen the whole time. He was in tears and his father yelled at him. Why wasn’t I on screen the whole time?
Because I was walking around my classroom trying to check in on the twelve kids who showed up today. Because I was trying to get two kids who have done zero work because of their utter terror of technology finally logged into our textbook.
Because I was making a tiny bit of progress with two kids, and breaking another.
Because it’s 2020 and I don’t know how to teach anymore. 💔
But I wore this mask and put up the new background fireworks to celebrate a candidate who literally has the power to change or save their lives and their families’ lives, and I smiled.
So why am I crying now?
The Blues. For Blue.
every election:
because they are so diverse
urbanites vote blue
all it really takes
is a short conversation
with someone different
Smile and Nod
tried to woo them here
but only a few have come
so this is my life
What Is Left?
hours of phone calls
texts pleading in languages
i don’t even speak
setting up my room
with a yardstick and some hope
ready for today
social media
comments on our lack of space
(century-old school)
2020 wins.
after this, i just give up.
no one came to school.
to walk empty halls
without the student voices
cold. slow. loveless. death.
Ready not Ready
working from home ends
now i must say bye to pup
reality bites
Debates
“presidential” words
have left our society
with this disaster
but what can we do?
race the sunrise up the trail?
or trip ourselves down?
either way, we pant,
exhausted before the day
can even burn us.
Remote Learning Perks
September travel?
we can learn geology
and visit arches
we can buy peaches
from the orchards where they’re grown
relishing their juice
yet COVID follows
with at-capacity parks,
a shut-down ghost town
my motto follows:
be prepared. pack sushi, fruit.
drive towards the sunset.
find the world’s curves
where the sky clears away smoke
and we can just. breathe.
Nothing Dead about this Pool
a boy of few words
so happy for a costume
(his childhood lost)
Step Write Up 