If you don’t own your own mistakes
acknowledge your culpability
you can never move on.
Your improvement depends on
self-awareness.
Know your weakness, so you
can overcome.
poem-theory March 5, 2016
Sometimes the theory doesn’t pan out
It seems like a good idea
but the execution just doesn’t quite work.
Maybe the support staff didn’t quite have the vision.
Perhaps the concept wasn’t communicated adequately.
The theory was sound,
but it didn’t quite work out.
We need to try something
else.
.
.
.
I had my hair coloured at a salon today. Usually I do it my self, but the longer it gets, the harder that is. I suggested a thin swath of bright yellow, hidden beneath the top (uncoloured) layer, to pop out in vibrant contrast to the cold colours in the rest of the style. It didn’t quite work out as I envisioned it:
Goldwell Elumen (on natural white hair)
But aside from that weird yellow, looking like dripping dog pee in snow, it is rather gorgeous, I think. About 6 different Goldwell Elumen colours. Don’t ask me which ones. 
(All these photos are me. The composite was taken in the salon for their advertising). I doubt it will ever be so prettily curled again…
poem-ostrich day March 4, 2016
I am overwhelmed
by my responsibilities
and the weight of my grief
that creeps up unexpectedly
to undermine my clarity
to bury me with memories
and underscore my sense of loss.
I’ll hide myself from Helios: find
some sand to stick my head beneath.
poem-bouquet March 3, 2016
Bright blooms
suggest spring:
carefree days,
novelty,
Bright blooms
celebrate spring:
gratitude,
optimism.
Summer soon.
poem-too exhausted March 2, 2016
Too exhausted to care
whether the sensitive child is traumatized
by my insistence that she complete the
assignment as required.
Too exhausted to laugh
at the absurdity of end of term panic
after six weeks of poor attendance and disorganization.
Too exhausted to do more
than get through the day myself,
with nothing left for under-achievers who think
I should go over and above for them.
Too exhausted today to care
more about student success they they do.
There’s always tomorrow.
poem-optimism March 1, 2016
Each year a goose takes roost in
the osprey nest platform above the mill.
I suppose penthouse accommodations entice.
The view is lovely there,
and surely she feels superior to her kin
nesting waterfront (though their
recreational opportunities are greater).
Each year, after a month of goose occupancy,
the ospreys return.
I do not know the depth of the tragedy.
Do the evicted geese simply suffer homelessness,
or do they endure the grief of infanticide, as well?
Sometimes our lofty aspirations
are our undoing.
Our hubris is our hamartia,
but each year, in early spring, there’s a goose
in the osprey nest.
.
.
.
.
Remember your Shakespeare lessons? Hamartia is the ‘fatal flaw’ of your personality that leads to your downfall (most commonly in literary tragedies). Hubris is an excess of pride.
poem-danger February 29, 2016
It walks
behind you.
It coils
between your thoughts.
It surges
unexpectedly.
But you have power
to protect yourself.
Vigilance.
Faith.
poem-flipping February 28, 2016
I’m flipping the pancake
and no furry friend is tangled in my legs
hoping for disaster.
poem-labels February 27, 2016
She is nestled up against him
waiting for the whispered words
of adoration, desire.
He sighs contently, and tells her
she is cuddly.
That sounds like a teddy bear she says.
He pulls her closer, nuzzling into her neck,
but a single tear rolls down her cheek.
Shawn L. Bird 