#Inktober2019: Ripe

Not Quite Ready

Ripe fruits of summer

become fleeting memories

along with hot days

#Inktober 2019: Catch

First Little League Game

He stood on third base

hoping to catch his first ball

His dad held his breath

#Inktober2019:Injured

Creating a Saga

It was self inflicted

or brought on by natural

circumstances or perhaps

a malicious incident

She wore the raised oval

on her wrist as a way 

to enter into an intimacy

without risk, a conversation

gambit, an indulgent ploy 

that let her enter another life

She spun stories

of how the oval appeared—

a marvel, something woven

out of the thread of myths

This was not an injury

without a backdrop.

#Inktober2019: Ride

      Summer

I recall the ride to a bungalow in the Catskills where we piled our overstuffed baggage into the trunk of a large car transporting three families to different destinations and I asked how much longer— we all left the city with its fire escapes and sweltering apartments to spend a week or even the whole summer sharing kitchens in small cabins where fly paper hung down in the kitchen to catch any flying insect and bridge tables became maj jong tables after supper

Our mothers played canasta or maj jong while our fathers worked in the city and came up on weekends and played softball until the sun disappeared while we cheered and sucked popsicles 

I recall the ride home and how I asked how much longer

#Inktober2019: Coat

The Issue of Height

I wore my Pea Coat

and a wool scarf

coiled around me 
ready to unfurl 
as I walked

*scarfs were six feet long

#Inktober2019: Dark

The Dark Season

Winter brings darkness
erasing long days and the
deep heat of our sun

#Inktober2019:Tasty

Summer Treats

A pound and a half lobster

potato salad and a cold beer

eaten while overlooking the ocean

A raspberry chocolate chip

ice cream or a pistachio gelato

A burger piled high with accouterments 

and hand cut sweet potato fries

Banana, strawberry, and mango

spun and blended into a smoothie 

And the sun —warming my bones

I taste the sun, swallow it’s warmth

along with wild  blueberries

and the tang of a summer day

#Inktober2019:Dizzy

   The Earth In Rotation

Once, just once, I traveled

on a spinning, gyrating  

amusement park ride

I traveled from a stable earth

to one that spun, dipped,

shuddered, and catapulted

me into a limbo where I

lost contact with the ground—

where my limbs became 

appendages I no longer

recognized, where my insides

jiggled and lurched from side 

to side, where my head 

began to spin —slowly at first 

and then began to quicken

At the end, unbuckled and released

my legs wobbled, 

and the world still spun
         

#Inktober2019: Ancient

    Interpretation 

When does old become ancient 

Is it a matter of time or perspective

When I was sixteen forty seemed old

and fifty almost ancient

At thirty old moved up to fifty

and ancient hovered around seventy

Now I look upon old as a metaphor

rather than an age— how old do you feel

And ancient refers to Egyptian mummies

or Greek statues, or shards of pottery

found beneath buried cities 

#Inktober2019:Ghost

A Chance to Be Heard

Unsaid words haunt our

nighttime dreams promising to

speak the words aloud 

#Inktober2019: Treasure

The Past Doesn’t Replay

I ignored treasures

spread out in front of me—instead

spending my time
with illusions and daydreams

When those  disappeared,

incomplete stories remained

My treasures—dried up 

left without a backwards glance

#Inktober2019:Tread

Tread Lightly Around Demagogues  

Take care, do not step

into those places where hate rears 

up and destroys us

#Inktober2019:Sling

Using An Antenna

Years ago, when I began teaching in New York City, my first assignment included an extra five hundred dollars because the school carried the designation— problem area school. At the initial meeting for all the new teachers— half the staff— instructions included how to write on the blackboard while facing the class, what not to wear, and when to ring for assistance.

Except for a few students my classes did not turn into hotbeds of destructive behavior. Once I realized that many in the class could not read adequately to decipher the middle school text —a moratorium existed. Instead of dealing with their frustration I began to teach reading—using comic books.

Several students couldn’t care about deciphering words unless those words led to a description of weapons. Superman wore a cape around school and ran a protection racket in the cafeteria. Pay or keep going to the end of the lunch line. He kept order so no one took him on. 

Many of the teacher’s cars had missing antennas —used to make Zip Guns.  Superman made a living making and selling Zip Guns and slingshots that also used antennas, but with little accuracy.

#Inktober2019: Misfit

Take Care Who You Label

Who wears the mantle

of misfit, perhaps the one

who is unlike you

                             

#Inktober 2019: Ornament

Pearls and Diamonds

My aunt amassed boxes

of costume jewelry to

create her own style