By Amy Simone Piller
On the other side of where you arethere is someplace you want to be(watch your feet not go straight,or look up, end up, where you meant).
Some things cannot be compared(there is too much there whereprotons make nebulae eventually)We cannot choose what to discern,sentimental bleeds brutal(we are dots in the worldamidst earthly pixilation)choosing to not want [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
We hold these truthsto be self evident,but we’re tired?
I know,no,that is not how it goesbut it is hard to knoweveryday, to stay on task,stay and stay,when it is earlyand all I want is to look away from little face #22who has needs just like you and youwho blinks and says“But listen, please, just to meand [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
I will wish you into perfect shapeI’ve wanted for my selfish self aloneand banish all ideas incapableof making you feel blissfully at home.
I know I am full of mere pipe dreams that might never near connect,but if not orchestrated for this themewhat is worthwhile to protect?
You say there is no wrong directionjust a million places [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
You’re busymaking me likealliterations again andother little thingslike smiles.
The world is sudden and meant for seeing soonand close and now.
Maybe we will see it as two kids rolling downhillgreen and blue, green then blue,green, blue, me, and you.
The things we seewill need to be felt like red blushingneeds tight cheek musclestingling, touching fingersand [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
“Individuals have the ability to transform dominant discourses for libratory purposes.†– Lisa Delpit
We ask studentsto become literatein the discourse of their oppressionand scream when they will notconform.
Rational, we remind ourselveswe are rational,so we must screamof frustration, not fury
at the need for a languageunknown, no dictionariesto describe how we might communicateamidst this messed [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
Your accents are different.
That is allthough in attentivenessyou periodically panicthat you straddle continents.
But panicking is not periodic,so let me reassure.
Remember the Bering Land Bridgeexists only under water—a connection greaterthan ocean ships shaking.
Were you impossibly in sync(two conch shells around one head)you would no longer be two,instead overlappedcrest to trough,no excitement to graph.
A wave alonemisses [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
“Who threw the eraser?Who tripped into whom? Who pushed?Who apologized? Whose father leftthis morning?â€
Newspaper on the doorstep:“Children’s Health Insurance PlanVetoed.â€
Veto.
It could be a vocabulary word. “Children, copy it down—this is how your country’s failingyou. Look I can show you howto read this nonsense.There goes thirty five billion dollarsthat might have fixed your glasses,that you [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
It is easy to write myself throughthe view, my bay windowstolid and sprinkledwith familied children and shouts of “Watch out!â€
But here, scaffolding risesaround lost little lungs;hammers hacking asbestos.
In this classroom there is little one could understandwithout being a fly.(We are all in too deep).
Windows are barred, dirty.Not seeing out is how it is,these things [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
We’re in the aftermathof a paddle passing forward—growing concentric circlesdecreasing droplets, wondering ifyou’ve sucked me dry.
It is not this simple,the seaweed has my paddle,and the river is no sink.It continues, and we lack drainpipes or any attachmentto self, still together.
On the bus home,I nearly fall inthe portable toilet.
Where did the river go?This is not the [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
I catch myself talking to the toastercoaching “you’re not done,â€turning up the heat, slowly learning the insignificanceof buttons.
I start to think,if you were here you might think I’ve lostmy mind,only there is no youwho might actually think that.
There is the toaster,who with some patience,was coaxed to make me smile.
I have a hundred papers to [...]