Shape

I need to be corrected distantly, to know my door from the wall, and closely, to know my own hands, and the whiteness of the price tag paper from the ink of the $7.95, which is too much to pay for paint, lo though the shop is cool like a cave and slaves were chained […]

Unbearably On The Nose But True Symbol Story

I raised these butterflies, if by “raised” you mean paid for them, and carried them processionally around the arc of desks in my classroom, so each student could see them. See? Mariposa. Mariposa. (For the Spanish speakers.) Then I had seven painted lady butterflies in a cylindrical mesh cage. Honestly I was surprised they became […]

Veracruz

Maundy Thursday, I felt an urge to run. It was not my panic urge to run, which is chemical, biological. It reminded me of the people in the book I just read about exorcisms. The people who flinch when you set a crucifix on the nape of their neck. I just felt, not here, I […]

Going Back

This week, one of my male students from Afghanistan was bent over during class. He was really quiet, and wasn’t doing anything. I sat down next to him. “You are sad about leaving Afghanistan?” These last few weeks, we have been learning words for emotions. I chose these for our core words: joy, depression, grief, […]