be yourself and if you don't know who you are make someone up.


....................

corn maze

is a maze map an oxymoron?

magnetic bird #2: click on poem to read!

my kids:

one thinks i look like a teenager. another likes snakes. a lot. one likes to use my hand sanitizer. one likes kermit the frog, but not animal who is creepy. said student also likes mini star wars characters. very much. another is very shy and very attached. one likes to sing "miss mac paddy wack" to me. said student's favorite healthy food is elk meat, which can be purchased at the super walmart. one girl wants to be a hairstylist, one boy wants to be an army guy or a child actor. said student also wishes he could bring his bb gun on school property. one has a grandfather in mexico who has his very own donkey. all of them like seagulls. one speaks no english or spanish, but marshallese. this one puked on the play ground yesterday. one has hannah montana shoes. one boy, with a crush, likes to make hand signals to me while mrs. anderson is teaching. this same boy thinks miss spitler has pretty hair. one was not impressed by my cut out fish. one is a foster child who loves pink. another likes cats. actually, they all like cats. and sea gulls. and coloring. and recess. one girl wants to be a superstar.

me, all i want is to teach them to read.

To Assist a Garter Snake in Shedding Her Skin

soak her in tepid water,

place her in damp moss for one-half hour.

____

humans shed skin cells too,

slowly,

in tiny pieces.

before i met you, i collected skins

of garter snakes, the feathers of birds.

i kept them in a small wooden box

with the gold braid my mother cut

from the nape of my neck.

what does the garter snake lose

in shedding her skin? (pieces of herself)

i needed more than a mattress of moss.

one morning you showed me how to dance,

palm to palm in zig zags across the carpet.

i thought about bald eagles in courtship-

how they grab each other’s talons and tumble-

surely, they lose a feather or two.

hair is easy going: you cut your long curls,

i save a lock in a wooden box-

nobody really notices how humans shed skin

but last night, i lost my last skin cell

somewhere in a dark corner of the bar

while your fingers were in my hair,

i couldn’t save it.

____

after one-half hour,

the snake will shed her skin.

watch her relish her bare intimacy.

oh beaumont!

this weekend was nice. first the greek food festival on friday night, and then a hike to skyline divide on saturday (where i ran into russell! fellow wrc member, bus buddy, and old pal from scriptural lit). the weather was brilliant, my friends are equally brilliant, and the scenery was breath-stealing. the hike up was a bit of a struggle for me at first. whew! i am out of shape! but i got my stride down and made it all the way, tasting victory as the salt on my lips. highlights of the trip included two grouse sightings, many hawks, and a women hiking with a lama named sally, a dog, and three goats. one of the goats was a baby named beaumont and he wanted to follow our dog, luna, and the rest of us down the trail. the woman kept scolding poor, curious beaumont, saying, "beaumont, you have two options! stay or get eaten!" in a very stern and commanding voice. he stayed, though we wanted to take him with us.

anyone lived in a pretty how town...

by E. E. Cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town

(with up so floating many bells down)

spring summer autumn winter

he sang his didn’t he danced his did.

Women and men(both little and small)

cared for anyone not at all

they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same

sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few

and down they forgot as up they grew

autumn winter spring summer)

that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf

she laughed his joy she cried his grief

bird by snow and stir by still

anyone’s any was all to her

someones married their everyones

laughed their cryings and did their dance

(sleep wake hope and then)they

said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon

(and only the snow can begin to explain

how children are apt to forget to remember

with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess

(and noone stooped to kiss his face)

busy folk buried them side by side

little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep

and more by more they dream their sleep

noone and anyone earth by april

wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)

summer autumn winter spring

reaped their sowing and went their came

sun moon stars rain

i started my job with the washington reading corps! i am working at jefferson elementary school in mt vernon! it is great.


sea animals i have recently cut out of paper:


1 walrus
1 orca whale
1 blow fish
1 crab
1 pink sea horse
3 sea gulls
1 sea turtle
1 shark (friendly)
64 fish