Writing

As the school year winds down,

So do I -

And yet

The homework

Does not.

We are saying goodbye

To beloved interns -

Beloved teachers -

If only for the summer -

Tradition is

Runner beans

Shells being cracked open

Until fingers are sore -

Sitting around a table with

A game of Dutch Blitz going and

Graham crackers with peanut butter

i'd like to think that the founding fathers, the framers, the men who wore wigs & makeup & helped make all this a possibility for me, would look at our country, at the cherry blossoms refusing to bloom next to the white-columned house engr

Being a teen is like standing at the very edge of a tall cliff. One wrong move and it all crumbles; one wrong dress, one wrong word, one wrong love and you're over. 

you've felt

the brambles and sweat, 

the curl of berry-stained lips.

you've seen

the cornflower sky stolen

by a red-orange river,

the evening still thick

with lightning bugs and laughter.

those who will come next 
should cherish the time they get 
for the minutes move faster 
closer to the end