Drinking Song

—just to be with us where we are,
humming your verses over us
Ready to Make Friends with Poetry? ⟶

I want to fly these dumbbells up, down, up, down quick! The momentum of each lift rising at my side pushing past perhaps what’s safe or wise in the name of what? Speed or yes, the checklist-exercise- done! When I slow instead, face the window and raise these weighted arms slow, slow, slow-up; slow, slow,…
There is a song in petals, the rainsound of notes on thirsty earth feeding spring’s new flowers. There is a melody in the making of a garden where silent, shriveled seeds wait to burst, pushing through wet soil with their magic strength inside. There is a harmony in the golden leafwhisper and silent shout of…
There’s a lot one can say about the power of being quiet (yes, I see the irony). When listening forefronts the mind other senses muscle their way into place (the ears above all) take in the not-words simply song, hum and tone …
We have a mandate to leave no child behind, Yet we are educating children not left behind, But left to die, escaping with their families and their lives, The clothes on their backs and a lifetime of images they want to forget. So we attempt to educate them– ‘educate’from the Latin-‘to lead out’ Lead…
There is an altar here– facing the supply cubbie flanked by the printer (bedecked with Post-it notes), computer at my alternate elbow. Stray crackers sit open next to the pen and paper and glasses, mid-snack, abandoned. Paper, tape, scissors stapler–all adorn this secular cum sacred space. How so? I folded my hands in prayer and…
I stroll in for a ‘few’ groceries at The Hundred Dollar Store, stopping first for what passes for sustenance (never shop when you’re hungry). The bright-eyed toddler tossed in the air before me while parents wait for pizza, kissed by dad, hugged by mom, she slyly smiles, curling into strong shoulders. I push away,…