Happy birthday, HARPER!

So much to say about this little princess. This is going to be a multiple post topic. First, here are a couple favorite pics. 

Date Night!

Shonn and I had a great night with our besties, the Bennetts and the Smiths. Olive Garden and lots of laughing!

Wild Summer 2012

EIWP 2012

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EIWP 2012--I like it wild!


(This is a found poem written from phrases found on the 3rd floor of Coleman Hall during the bathroom break writing crawl.)

Thirteenth Summer

The Last Thirteenth Year

Our newspaper claims they say “Pharaoh, Pharaoh”

a mating call of the plagues of Egypt coming in sevens or tens

locusts brought on the wind, cover the eye of the land

eating every tree until the Pharaoh admits his sins.

But these come every thirteen years,

teens walking hand-in-hand

under power lines along an abandoned track.

Listening to cicadas, their twirling wings like vibrating atoms,

I feel more like a pharaoh than a lover,

letting go of the last thirteenth year

when you walked with me under singing oaks

holding a dog’s leash instead of a hand.

If you really knew me. . .

In high school, friends from another school, who nonetheless knew my mother,
assumed I was a cheerleader.
They judged me based on my size,
my smile,
my personality.
But I wasn't and never had been a cheerleader.

My colleagues who only know me as the teacher who cannot say "No,"
assume that in high school I was the student leader.
The student involved in every activity,
especially Student Council.
But I wasn't ever involved in Student Council.

If you really knew me, you would know that I was a caver.
Not spelunking, that's what you non-cavers call it.
I was a belly-crawling in the mud,
through an opening that not even my hard had would fit through,
through an opening that my now after-birth hips would never fit through,
CAVER.

Haikus and a Lost Dog

Haikus for a Lost Dog

1.

She felt cold, tundra

of white, clean the firm silence.

Empty steppe links breaths.

2.

Wrapped in off-white sheets

her tail a permanent curve

she rests on old snow.

3.

Pillow replaces

her, bearing her scent after

she moves to smooth steel.

Haikus from a Lost Dog

1.

They freeze-dry their pets

in some countries, preserving

bodies, not just hides.

2.

In movies, women

sit on dogs and bury them.

Someone digs them up.

3.

For taxidermists

only outer hides remain.

My breath blows through fire.

"Wrong Channel" Found Poem

This is America

Bibles

Reader's Digest

Impala

Espresso

Florida Room

Green Card

Beads of sweat

Good impression

Healthier look

Medical records

Interpreter

No bueno

TB

TV

Make sure it works

You need to buy one

This is America

Attaining the American dream:

TV--yes

TB--no