We’re in day two of isolation when the doorbell rings. I throw on my mask, unlock the door, and peer through the slats in our gate. The gentleman holds papers in his hand. There are only a few possibilities, having lived here for a couple years. A utility notice. Request for donations. Or what I …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Rhinitis
Rhino has always had allergies. Late night allergies. Enough of the time that I think nothing of it when he sniffles up, loading tissues like a t-shirt cannon. We think it’s mostly dust, stirred up in the evenings when we turn the ceiling fan on in his room. The first couple minutes are fine but …
Speedbump
The announcement arrives at 5pm On a Friday. I’m moments out of a 45-minute plus 30-minute avalanche of info, parent meeting plus internal logistics of safely reopening. An exhausting week of planning, replanning, planning again. Managing the safe reentry of 450 kids in the midst of of a pandemic is no longer easy. It probably …
Cool
Crust. That’s the best way to describe the feeling the exposed parts of your face take on. They become crust. An unrelentingly cold prairie morning, sun blazing, rapping my mittens against the tetherball pole to see how the flakes of ice would shatter, then slither. I am so f***ing cold But fully awake, and this …
ba muoi mot
I breeze past the woman straining to hoist the baby onto her back, weighing whether it makes sense to stop and help. nah She’ll be fine And as I catch a glimpse of her in my rear view, doing just that. I remember Rhino and Elephant, gently snuggling them in, at different times, to the …
marked words
I’m starting to understand displacement! I think I’m getting these ideas Rhino sits, ensconced on the couch in the fuzzy blue blanket, laptop atop lap, trailing the single earbud anchored in his left ear. Staring, as ever, at the screen. Typing away. This is the brave new world for today’s high school frosh. I’m kind …
Batman, Ting, and Sport
Three the holy trinity, the rule of thirds a magic number The boys squat, face forward, together but they look in different directions One left, one right, and the third, straight down. Two older gentlemen, only their feet visible behind the boys, share a smoke and lean on their motorbikes being the fourth and fifth in …
nut man
It’s been a misty, socked-in week. Air is moist, closets are musty. The sun and moon lie hidden, dormant. I miss the sun and moon It’s less a storefront and more a room, inside a house down a quiet lane, just off a quiet lane, down another quiet lane it’s a bit hidden, but there’s …
unstuck
I love anything from Oliver Jeffers, he manages to fit so much between the pages of a picture book. Joy, without cliche. Today I feel stuck, my kite up a tree Inert, rigid, slothlike, fixed. I should all over myself, tell myself that what’s happening isn’t good enough, that I need to be a productive …
sad but strong
It’s difficult to be both, at once. We greet one another and, like always, check in about the mundane. She asks after me, I mention that I’m recovering, been catching up on sleep. How are you? She pauses, and her face drops. Glances away and wipes away a single tear There’s a moment of quiet …
Get Up Eight 