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Microwaved Salad
“I decided not to eat my salad today,” my colleague says to me at lunch with a big smile. She’s eating her salad, forkful of lettuce halfway up to her mouth as she says this. I smile at her, waiting for my brain to catch her meaning. It doesn’t, so I end up just staring at her for one long second. She realizes I have no idea what she’s talking about. “Oh! You must not have been in here yet yesterday when I heated my salad.” “OH!” chimes in our other colleague. “I though you said, ‘I decided not to EAT my salad’ and I thought, isn’t she eating it…
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Message on the Sidewalk
In thick, bold strokes Capitalized Stretched tall and wide as the square of sidewalk allowed A child proclaimed in chalk: ~ I WANT ~ I continued along the blank spaces of cement Spattered only in blackberry stains Smashed snails and suburban debris ~ Seventeen squares later When I had already forgotten about what the children want The baby blue chalk lines Upside down Came into focus: ~ POWER
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El Bosque Plateado
Often the students in my Spanish courses will ask me how to translate the names of places or restaurants. “Profe, ¿cómo se dice ‘Red Robin’ en español?” they call out with innocent and expectant faces. I explain that there are some things we don’t translate, such as names or titles. This, despite the fact that my Peruvian husband thinks it’s the most hilarious joke on Earth to belt out poorly translated song lyrics as we carpool to work or invent literal, nonsensical translations of the stores and businesses we pass. (Full disclosure: I play along too). Sometimes I tell the students my favorite restaurant is “El Petirrojo” (Red Robin) or…
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How I Wrote a Book
Last June, two days after the hardest year of my ten-year teaching career – a year that tore my emotions to shreds and made me forget the feeling of joy – I started writing a book. The protagonists had been hanging out in my mind for over a month by that point. I don’t mean that I had been brainstorming characters with the intention to write a novel. On the contrary, despite no current plans to write anything at all, these characters just showed up one day in my brain. Over the course of several weeks, their lives unfolded in my imagination as I washed dishes or drove to work.…
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Another Day, Another Bomb Threat
October 31st, 2022: Halloween I realize my assistant principal’s soft-spoken voice is muffling through the intercom, mixing into the Oaxacan music, drowning in children’s joyful chatter. The tone is too calm to draw my attention; I figure I’ll just get class started and check my email at the same time in case I missed something. I’m reading Octavio Paz’s death poem when they tell me we have to get out. “Do we take our stuff, Profe Klein?” students ask, their eager eyes looking to me for direction. “Nope, we just go,” I reply matter-of-factly, stupidly leaving all of my stuff behind as well – phone, jacket, keys. I do remember…
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We Are Clapping Again
I curved and weaved through the woods, passed a lush mountain peppered with paragliders, and wondered if I would ever arrive. My new commute was further than I expected. My stomach flip-flopped as I parked and walked cautiously into a very old school building. I was greeted by a woman in a long dress, her hair in two simple braids at the sides of her warm, gentle face. Her spirit was the spitting image of my Auntie Kathleen, a woman who spent the majority of her retired life clipping out newspaper articles and writing letters to everyone she knew on scraps of recycled paper. I was enveloped in a strong,…
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Fall
The leaves haven’t turned, But something is different- There’s gold in the air.
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To Coffee or Not to Coffee?
I am undecided on coffee. I go through phases. The thought of a homemade latte in the morning gets me out of bed with a flutter of hope rippling through my stomach. The caffeine is a burst of joy. It expands in my chest as I softly sing along to Lady Gaga on my morning commute, a rainbow of every shade of green flashing past my window. The energy tingles down my fingertips and my brain buzzes with new ideas for lesson plans, pieces together poetic phrases, makes the untenable reality of a working mom in 2022 feel completely and totally doable. Sometimes the tingling becomes too intense. It starts…
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Uncle G’s Last Story
Hey everyone! I wrote this story for my family to capture a few of the beautiful memories we have shared together over the years. 🙂 My childhood is filled with memories from my aunt and uncle’s dining room table. My Aunt Nancy seated on one end, elegantly holding a glass of red wine; my Uncle Gordon on the other end, talking. Discussing politics, telling stories from childhood, theorizing about this and that. Always authoritative and articulate. In between my sophisticated aunt and eloquent uncle, the rest of us filled out the long, formal dining room table with our ridiculous shenanigans. Fiddling with the antique “Happy Birthday” jack-in-the-box, which my little…
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Salmon Berry
(1st Version) Stopped in a trail loop, I squeeze a salmon berry, Juice flowing freely. (2nd Version) My daughter stops along the trail To rip up leaves, Throwing each tiny piece into an imaginary stove in the sticks. “Let’s go!” I call. “Ready?” asks Grampa. “Do you want to go back to the car?” big brother coaxes. She ignores us all and keeps tearing the flesh of fresh ferns Like her life depends on it. “I am cooking!” she finally screams at all of us. “Are you happy or mad?” she asks her brother. “I am angry, because you are not coming,” he replies. “No! You are happy!” She cooks…
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The Summer After
The Summer After (as a Haiku) Outside smelled like sun and hot pine needles raining golden redemption. (variation) It smells like sun and baked pine needles and renewal. The world is still on fire in the distance, but here it’s all golden redemption. * * * (people watching) Families stream through the streets dripping sweat They pull wagons of kids and carry dragon kites Dads with bare tattooed chests Call their kids to the piñata A man with three-inch holes in his earlobes orders bubble tea for his children Blended watermelon and green apple boba Honeydew with strawberry beads Rainbow jellies in lemonade Taro with black honey tapioca And…