Bought my first Jeep on a Friday in March of 2020. One week later, I put a red bin into the back of that silver new Wrangler. An announcement blared. Admin promised a return. I blinked. Opened my eyes stuck in [Insert State]. True story: one sick-seared evening in [Insert State] longing clawed raw atContinue reading “To the Jeep Family,”
Tag Archives: narrative non-fiction
READ FIRST.
Whatever brought you here, consider fate possibility. You arrived. I need help. I wrote magic for a few folk. Link my words to them. Reader, you and I are connected by less than six-degrees. My words could be for your acquaintance. Now, the magic won’t work if known, in advance, who the magic’s addressed toContinue reading “READ FIRST.”
Don’t Ever Tell Anybody Anything (But Here’s My Introduction)
I left home. Can’t tell where. Not Yet. I was born there. Parents born there, grandparents born there, too. I never left home. Not even for school. I raised my family there, worked hard, had no reason to leave. Planned to die there, really. Until the day I heard the words, “You won’t like this.”Continue reading “Don’t Ever Tell Anybody Anything (But Here’s My Introduction)”
To a Bullshit-Detector
You know bullshit. Of course, any observer could guess this from your recline in the desk, like Jimi Hendrix on a sofa at an intimate house party (your lidded gaze and smirk suggest similar indulgences). Your beauty has no effort–wild hair, untamed brows, a bit of extra hip weight. No effort to your uniform ofContinue reading “To a Bullshit-Detector”
To an F- Student
My class didn’t come easy for you. I’m not sure much of school did. When you reached for the answer to a question in class, it looked like someone reaching for tweezers dropped between the car console and driver’s seat cushion. Same look during any test. But every day after school, I’d hear your fluorescentContinue reading “To an F- Student”
To the Geo Tracker of the USA: Guess Which State This Is
I swore, at the age of twenty-five, I would never return. Ever. Even as an adult, when I overhear the name, or the two-letter abbreviation, I thrust myself into conversation and proclaim, “[Insert State] is the limp dick of the USA!” That is, until, my husband sat me down at the table and said, ”You’reContinue reading “To the Geo Tracker of the USA: Guess Which State This Is”
To the Off-Beaten-Never-Did-Fit-In
I remember the look on your face when I announced my leave of absence to the class. It still haunts me. You waited until the end, mouth stretched wide, “Are you really leaving?” I explained it was only temporary. You shuffled locks, looked away, “But…I like how you use the earth to tell stories….” youContinue reading “To the Off-Beaten-Never-Did-Fit-In”
Dear Colleague (I apologize in Advance for My Poetry),
Poems aren’t my thing, but here’s an odyssey of a dream. I’ll write a ballad. Google says it counts as poetry. You love this stuff. But I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. When I pressed send for the letter of resignation to the job I thought I’d never leave, I fell into theContinue reading “Dear Colleague (I apologize in Advance for My Poetry),”
To the Board of Admissions,
I usually write letters of recommendations for my seniors. That kind of became interrupted in the Spring of 2020. I’d still like to write a letter for this particular student. I hope you understand its delay (the pandemic has been tough on us teachers). To whom it may concern: The hardest letters of recommendation to writeContinue reading “To the Board of Admissions,”
To the Hardest Class I Ever Taught,
I am so happy you graduated years ago. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like teaching you through a screen after March of 2020. During a lesson about the life cycle of a chrysalis, I gave a paragraph to read and instructions to highlight where you found proof that butterflies come fromContinue reading “To the Hardest Class I Ever Taught,”
