a new world view:
a high school stage set with love
inclusive of all
There’s Still Hope
a new world view:
a high school stage set with love
inclusive of all
teachers
Even the Sunset Says So
Is there a prettier Denver sunset than this ‘red’ sunset over teachers rallying to strike??
I don’t know what you were thinking, DPS. Did you not realize you are a district in a union-led hotbed of liberals???
Did you think we were going to sit down and shut up??
We’re going to rally. We’re going to win.
Even the sunset says so.
Unsatisfactory
You deserve a poem
for your partial proficiency.
You deserve all the words
that you take from our mouths,
that you tell us to tear down
from our walls,
that you banish from our rooms
in the form of literature
(the very thing you dare assess)
for the lock-and-key,
starve-and-dehydrate,
Nazification of a test
you put on a pedestal,
a test they all detest,
for which they could care less.
You deserve a poem
for your unsatisfactory mark
upon the teachers you denigrate,
the teachers you should emulate.
Perhaps I will learn Morse Code,
buy the appropriate paraphernalia,
and send my message over the airwaves.
Would you listen to me then?
Blue Rectangle
he holds it up proud as a parent
perfectly cut into a blue rectangle
it fits behind the glossy plastic
he grins his jolly-Jun grin
and though he drives me crazy
with his grumbling questions
and loud arguing voice
(“we can’t whisper to argue!”)
he follows me home,
makes it into the dinner conversation,
and with my words,
his actions,
has made my day.
Parent/Teacher Conferences
here we sit waiting for you
your kids’ grades in the queue
but you’re not here, you’ve disappeared
for your kids’ future we’ve volunteered
our time, our work, our care, our love
for them we strive to go above
whatever task you require of us
we throw ourselves in front of the bus
but when we make this time for you
there are other things that you pursue
and yet when it is time to blame
you seek us out with your flame
“scores are low, kids are dumb”
as if we are the lowest scum
but I do not see you here tonight
making our kids’ futures bright
so hush your song and close the lid
on every word that you once hid
I don’t want to see in tomorrow’s news
the disgraceful lies that you accuse
because we are here now, you are not
let’s hope their future doesn’t rot
Furlough This!
You can’t put a price on what we do for kids
the price we pay with your most recent bids
even if you take another thing away
freeze salaries and three days without pay
you’ll never take away what we provide
to students who are never once denied
whatever you can spatter us with next
that leaves you looking lost and so perplexed
because the actual answer doesn’t lie
in a dollar amount yanked from the sky
each student’s, parent’s, or admin’s demands
lies here, within each teacher’s humble hands.
We are not drawn forth into this career
sans knowing sacrifice is always near.
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