Prompt: waiting!!!

Kids Art Journal

My daughter is 15 months and does not have any interest in her paintings. For the paintings that mean a ton to me — the first time she tried brushes, the first time she proudly handed me a piece — I’m cutting them into holes, writing their significance and turning them into ornaments. The rest of the artwork I staple together in a little book, and if I have enough I’ll use them as a journal. It’s fun writing next to her art!

 

List Poems

I Have A Friend

by @jugs.judy

I have a friend who, amongst steelworks and supermarkets and an hourly bus, cut herself a husk and has been building retaining walls ever since

I have a friend who, in the litter flowing down the gutter, sees a river reflecting electric neon. Who does not smell the oil spreading slick in those first few seconds of rain

I have a friend who talks in tongues of film noir detectives, entangled in persecution narratives, the narcotics numbing the necrosis until they can’t

I have a friend submerged, an occasional wave within an otherwise glassy bay. I rest on the sand, waiting

I have a friend who is Not A Hugger, but who wrestles to feel the strain of another’s muscle and skin encasing their own

I have a friend in retrospect, an enemy at the time, a reflection in the mirror and a shadow trailing behind.

 

I Have Learned

by Andy Palasciano

I have learned that a sail has to be empty to catch the wind. I have learned that I cannot direct the direction a conversation will go any more than I can control the direction the wind will blow. I have learned that I cannot teach myself anything. And the children I taught when I was a Substitute Teacher showed me I cannot teach anyone else either. If learning is remembering, Substitute Teaching made me and those I attempted to teach want to forget.