Single mom

The 19 year old single mom who sits in the back of the classroom keeps lifting a bra strap back onto her shoulder while looking down at the floor or out the window. And when she finally looks forward and opens her mouth, words crawl out soft like apologetic children. Her eye twitches when I walk in her direction, but I stop as her typed words echo in my head and remember that even the essay she turned in last week rightfully has a chip on its shoulder. I stop, raise my head as to say, "Orale.". A half hour later, she walks toward the door to leave and slows down just long enough to mad dog me for a couple long seconds. But she'll be back. And that's a victory.

Harvest Moon

II know that the harvest moon already passed, but right now it sure looks like a Neil Young song.

Parenthood

You will experience the most wondrous victories and the most crushing defeats as a parent. Sometimes you will have them in the same day, or even in the same hour. Still, nothing fills the heart with pure love as when a child climbs into your lap, snuggles into your body, and says, "I love you." nothing compares to that; it is in a special category that few things can compare to.

Tweaker in the Morning

At 8:45 on the corner of 2nd Ave and H St she snarls through liquor store sunglasses out the window of her tri-colored Corolla, the trunk dancing up and down, held together with what is probably string or rope left over from some late night project. The sun beams, exposing the craters on her oily face as she exhales smoke with an urgency to get absolutely nowhere, but to get there as soon as possible. Like always, she is on a mission.

Helicopters

We become so accustomed to the circling helicopters that we blend them into the nighttime rhythm like singing crickets on a hot summer evening, but swat at bees during the day who wish nothing more than to pollinate the flowers we forgot to see so long ago.

Cubes

It can be difficult, you know, when it appears that the world is made up of nothing more than different shades of earth tone cubes that accentuate themselves by nothing more than showing whose cube is larger. It becomes ridiculous to the point that any splash of green or blue is nothing more than the echo of a school yard joke told decades ago by friend long lost just as life was becoming difficult.

Superstitious Dreamers

I find it absolutely ridiculous when someone says they had a dream about something they wanted to dream about and something happens in that dream that confirms what they already wanted; and then they say it was a sign! Or it made my faith grow stronger. No it wasn't. You got experienced exactly what you wanted to experience. It was all in your head, so don't be surprised that your brain told you what you wanted to hear.