Everything’s Rising.
Coastal waters are rising
Taxes are rising
Inflation…rising
My age is rising too, but
That’s not your problem
But, it has been said
With every action comes an
Equal reaction
If everything is rising…
Will we rise as a community?
Or, will we all fall?
By which I mean fail
To acknowledge hard truths
and take action?
Snow brings the trouble
The kids smell change in the air
Their noses upturned
Minds whirring with plots
It begins innocently
A white rush of air
A splash of cold snow
Suddenly, it’s a frenzy
Mounds crisscross the yard
Showering the kids
All with red noses and smiles
Hands cold and frozen
Rejoicing in the weather
Until the adults swarm in
To end the melee
Time easily slips
Seemingly slow, for the young
Crashing on the old
A child…a baby
Now moving out of the house
It’s the oldest tale
The mothers story
I knew time barreled toward me
Yet…I’m not prepared.
Please, make no mistake
New laws that attack our schools
Are not “for the parents.
That’s propaganda
Parents are often
Invited into the class
Lessons are often
Already online.
No. These laws show lawmakers
Who they can target
Thinly veiled attempts
To root out the teachers who
Teach real history
Because you see friends…
Education is power
Education is change
Education is discussion
Education is critical thinking.
Being educated
Shouldn’t be easy.
Education is a reckoning
And that should feel uncomfortable.
The consequences
Of the pandemic
Will be hard to count…
However, it’s clear
That the main victims are kids
They are in shambles
First, online schooling
Then, rolling quarantines and
Sick family members
We’ve expected them
To be strong. Meanwhile adults
Kept failing the kids.
Don’t @ me on this
I know we’ve all done our best
Closing school was right.
Here is my real point
We’ve asked our kids to adapt
While leaving no tools
In their school toolbox
They are alone in the wild
Because schools didn’t adjust
To the trauma of the kids
States are banning books
900,000 are dead
Now, the GOP
Have, of course, declared
Events of January 6
“Legitimate discourse”
2024
Is barreling fast toward us
A darkness is brewing
A darkness is brewing
Purple-pink neon
Kisses the clouds in the sky
Blessings from the sun
Kids pile in the car
Older now. Wiser, taller
But they still pile in
With sleep clinging to their eyes
We share the morning
Together.
The Atlantic Says
Art starts with good, strong, habits
But…I think that’s wrong
Creating your art
Is a profound privilege
One that’s not easy
For lots of people
More than anything else…art…
Requires your time
Because art takes time
Time is a commodity
Hence…a privilege.
Let us not talk, then
Of strengthening our habits
Let us instead talk
Of equity in
Creating art when time and art
Are commodities.
January blues
Bite at the body and soul
On misty mornings
Blistering morning
Snow soaking our clothes like rain
Car covered in ice
We step, bleary eyed
Sleep floating off our bodies
In the bitter cold
And pretend to go along
As a normal day
Hipstory 