Goals

I really wanted to But, There was a wall, a mile high, smooth with no handholds. A fence, running long, draped with razor wire. It was a mound of dirt, insurmountable. A blade of grass, quaking in the wind. It couldn’t be done. Not overcome, curbed, conquered, or defeated. It was a snail trail. A crumb. A casting […]

maybe it’s time for you to go

dinner isn’t ready. it won’t be. the stove is broken, the heating element snapped. there isn’t a clean dish in this house and we’re out of soap anyway. our food has spoiled. each veggie stalk moldy. fruit turned to mush. the bread ready for a penicillin harvest. there’s blood in the freezer, the meat thawed and […]

Tables and graphs

You measure life By your successes But You create no charts, legends, or keys There is no presentation documenting the good Just burning images of all the bad Your loss Your hurt Your wasted time But each failure is actually a success Yes, you learned a valuable lesson Which ought to be followed with “Today I” […]

Lost To Us

A window A screen A light on inside You sitting at the table You reading a book A door A knocker A light on inside You tiptoeing You crouching A sliding glass door A screen A light on inside You on the couch back with your book A forehead resting on the wall A sob […]

Something Beautiful

I want to write about something beautiful To be inspired by stories of the world But One must scour the pages for a positive To find a kindness One must reach passed The wretched behavior of Mothers and Sons Must shield against the atrocities of neighbors And the lost trust in our government and police […]

Set up

Seventh Graders will often use the wrong facial expression / voice inflection / emotion when expressing themselves. When it seems that they should sound happy or sad, they do not. Or, perhaps, they should sound worried or concerned but they are expressionless. This is just something I have noticed while teaching. Please consider the following: […]

Civic Education

Public Policy Levels of Government Don’t be an idiot Learn who to contact Who does What Cooperate Identify Propose Approach Communicate It isn’t hard Just do it Do it anyway

My Family Is …

Passive aggressive bullies. Now, Be Nice. Okay … Full of shit. Nope. Try again. My family is full of people trying to make it. Trying to make their life full. Trying to navigate what they need, what they want, what changes their minds, what keeps them going, what pushes against them, what others need, what others […]

Questions About My Behavior

I spend an awful lot of time feeling right. I know everything. I have every answer. I think everyone else in incompetent. Why do I do that? Why do I try to fix? Why don’t I let people tell me the answer? Why don’t I think they’re capable? Why don’t I let them be better […]

Kicked Out

I have been kicked out of many things in my life. Some of them were institutions that promoted love and understanding. I was kicked out of Brownies – that’s the step below Girl Scouts. You know that song you sing with your troop it has the line “My honor is to try and my duty […]