Hours ago, I found Shannon O’Neil, a small-boned fifth grader, sitting in a rumple of hoodie and big blue jeans, outside the door of his classroom. Kicked out, it seemed. Ms. Glenda Jackson, twenty-seven year veteran teacher with a short fuse, often kicked out that which made no sense to her. Shannon today fit that […]
Tag Archives | spirit
Waking
A climbing structure sits anchored to the north corner of my school’s playground. Four thick cords rise from asphalt and come together in a crow’s nest twenty feet high. A child with strong hands can scramble up to claim that perch, and from there, she can see west to the shoreline and beyond. Once a child declared to […]
Trouble
Red and gold leaves wafted down onto the empty playground this morning and blustery winds pushed the leaves along. I breathed in through my nose. Above, storm clouds blanketed the hillside in gray. Ah, sweet wet air! As I stood, I drifted among pre-storm ions and boyhood memories of incoming storms. Running in rain, sucking in cold […]
Reverie
I see Jacinda alone in one of the school’s breezeways. She dances a kind of three-hop number, a light skip down the middle, then back the way she came. She sings to herself as well – a quiet, private song. As I come around the corner, I can hear just a few notes. Concrete above […]
