There is your name
on the attendance list.
Absent: excused
Parents called in.
poem-slice December 4, 2019
What invisible edge
slit skin on finger tip,
inserted pain into this day?
Blood dripped.
Every typed word
reminds me
danger lurks everywhere.
I face the consequences
alone.
Concussed September 14, 2018
This concussion is a constriction
squeezing my head like a snake
hugging my eyes closed.
Light pressure. Dark daylight.
Just a little inconvenience.
poem- there October 14, 2016
I’m crafting a world
and living in it.
You’re part of the narrative,
if only,
you were there.
poem- Tech Lament February 11, 2016
Once more our tech is down;
Our secretary wears a frown.
Without access to the school network
Her computer has a little quirk:
It’s become a desk decoration
So she delivers colourful oration
On the difference it has made
To get these awesome tech upgrades.
We can not print. We can not copy.
We miss the days when disks were floppy!
We can not file. We can not type.
Improvements? Man, that’s all just hype.
They haven’t improved our telephone
It still works ‘cause they left it alone.
While twiddling our thumbs at least we’re paid
To celebrate these tech upgrades.
This year has been remarkably frustrating for us. Our school district has ‘upgraded’ its technology so everything runs through a network- all our DVD players, copiers, printers, projectors, and computers. This would be fantastic if the network was stable, but it’s not. At least half a day each week, and often two or three days, the network is down and we can’t do *anything.* Students can’t access their work. No one can research. We can’t access our presentations. We can’t show a movie. Our photocopiers run through the network, so we can’t even copy a paper if we have it in our hand. We are BEYOND frustrated with these ‘improvements’ and wish they’d just left us alone. Last year, every thing worked! We have a innovative school doing amazing things, except when the network shuts us down. >>>sigh<<<
poem- marble August 21, 2014
From the rail siding
in Carrera I see
Michaelangelo’s
cold white mountain
sliced block by block.
What once created
La Pieta and David
now reduced to
slices of counter tops.
.
.
.
poem- ancient understatement April 7, 2014
My father,
born 1914,
grumbles about his sore eye
and sighs,
“I guess
I’m getting old.”
.
.
(True story).
poem-spring melt March 9, 2014
The snow is melting!
I hear water tumbling like a waterfall
dripping into pool.
Cascading down my window blinds
puddling inside my door.
The snow is melting!
and I need a new roof.
.
.
.
poem- Havasu December 25, 2013
Lunar landscape
miles upon miles
of dust,
red rocks,
and sky
stretching wider than a sky has business stretching
then a surprise:
startlingly blue lake
reflects cloudless blue sky
and London Bridge.
How odd.
.
.
.
Lake Havasu City, Arizona, is set beside the lake formed by Parker Dam on the Colorado River. The city is accessed via historic Route 66.
poem- sunset November 26, 2013
The lake
is a puddle of pink paint
reflecting clouds glistening Klimt gold
in a sky fixated on fuchsia.
Shawn L. Bird 