Altered State – Part One
Short Story I wasn’t surprised when I got valedictorian — I’d always been at the top of my class. I was already multiplying in first grade while the rest of my class struggled to...
Tagged: school
Reunion Requiem
Haibun It’s been years since we all last met. Of course, we would feel a little awkward at first! Christine takes another chip off her plate. Peter sips his Pepsi. Neither says a word....
Winter’s Gift at a Vacation’s End
Haibun A layer of snow rests on the deck. Just a dusting. The reflection of tile on the storm door blends with that thin layer of snow. Light tries to breach the banks of...
An Autumnal Trinity: 3 Haibun
Haibun First Staff Day ’13-’14 A hot and humid auditorium. Teachers from every school seated, talking. Some near an open window, some fanning themselves. Most sweating. Like me. The newest school’s principal, a woman...
An Adage of Pizza Day
Poem When its late at night and all you hear is the wind rattling your window pane and a distant siren singing like a chihuahua at passersby, you might think loneliness is a...
Educational Sights
Haibun Brightly decorated bulletin boards show off fraction worksheets and reading logs. A table outside Ms. Flynn’s classroom has a ball suspended in water or a magnet-with magnets around. Frankie, Stephan, James and another...
Unacceptable Outcomes
Haibun AP Cherry informs me he can’t suspend Tavaughn. Instead, he removed him from our class for three days. He sounds sincere. But that insincere smile coupled with those tired wrinkles on his...
Another Day Passes
Haibun The sky deepens from blue to violet. The last dull, orange line above the darkened Ramapo Mountains fades. A distant cloud carries a hint of it along. Twilight comes. It’s Friday. The...
Grindstone
Haibun Poem Not even mid-week of the first full week. Overcrowded 10th graders chatter at every transition. Stephan already runs his mouth off. Alex and other repeaters quietly instigate just by talking and...
Dazed and Confused
Haibun Poem Voices droned on. About Chancellors’ regulations. Graduations. Assessment deadlines. In a whirl after I looked for colleagues to ask about free periods. Stapled borders to bulletin boards. Attended pointless Professional Development....
