I saw two human beings in this building that, on a typical school day, houses thirteen-hundred. I saw our head secretary, Dee, spending her Wednesdays from eight to noon on site, and the head custodian, Dan, spending a couple hours a day doing odd jobs until the crew can come back in May, he hears,Continue reading “#366: Ghost School”
Author Archives: michaeljarmer
#365: Staff Meeting in a Google Hangout
Our principal postponed the official and virtual staff meeting until Thursday, expecting new information about distance learning to come in after our regularly scheduled Tuesday morning Hangout. He held the Tuesday meeting open, though, made it voluntary, invited us to attend for mostly social reasons. I’m guessing about 30 of us showed up at thatContinue reading “#365: Staff Meeting in a Google Hangout”
#364: In Case of Emergency
(for Trisha Wick) Twenty-four years ago I wrote a poem, a sonnet, about the flood of ’96. It described the six feet of river water in my wife’s parent’s basement, that whole devastation, and the kids and families in the neighborhood who came to help restore and repair the house, the home, and hope. AContinue reading “#364: In Case of Emergency”
#363: These Trees
These trees are about to explode. Every year I attempt to catch the moment and every year I miss it. This year, outside in the yard every day, time to kill, I look up to see what’s happening. They’re close to leafing, I can almost hear it. You can see, in some of them, little clusters of stuff beyond branches, not yet leaves, butContinue reading “#363: These Trees”
#362: Small Pleasures: A List
Dogs sleeping together. These birds in the back, from every bird a different song. The “who” of that dove. We’ve never had doves and now we have a dove. Squirrels being squirrels. Animals reclaiming Yosemite, lions asleep in the streets in South Africa. Air that’s good to breathe. The clerk at the liquor store who callsContinue reading “#362: Small Pleasures: A List”
#361: Turn, Turn, Turntable
Some very old things are new again, especially this gem, the turntable. Certainly, you’re not going to see a cassette tape renaissance, or, god-forbid, an 8-track tape revival, or a home stereo reel-to-real reprise, or a digital audio tape come-back, but you are going to see turntables, turn, turn, turntables. Some old technology is deadContinue reading “#361: Turn, Turn, Turntable”
#360: No Image Available (An Insult Poem)
I cannot compliment. I rather insult: You are as orange as the flames of hell, as dimwitted as a bug, as immoral as Satan, as ugly as a turd in the pool, as reckless as a drunkard at a church social, as hateful as Satan again, the mythical Satan, because I don’t believe in Satan,Continue reading “#360: No Image Available (An Insult Poem)”
#359: Yeah
I love it when the word “yeah” shows up in a song lyric, not in the conventional way, as in “she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,” but in an informal, conversational way, when the word feels almost like filler, but you know that it’s not. Wayne Coyne uses the word “well” as the very firstContinue reading “#359: Yeah”
#358: The Class of 2020 May Not Want to See Your Senior Picture
People keep posting their senior pictures in solidarity with the class of 2020, as if this will make young people whose proms and graduation ceremonies were cancelled, who may or may not have had their own senior photos taken, feel better about their losses. I don’t know. If I was 18, I might be pissed;Continue reading “#358: The Class of 2020 May Not Want to See Your Senior Picture”
#357: First Day of School, April 13, 2020
I had no students. As are all seniors in Oregon, my seniors are done, but I read a few lovely, comforting notes of gratitude from a few of them, and some requests for letters of recommendation. My sophomores, cared for now by an extremely competent, caring intern, earning her Masters in Teaching, remotely, at aContinue reading “#357: First Day of School, April 13, 2020”
michael jarmer 