I had been volunteering twenty-eight hours a week in a middle school
Tutoring children, and I loved it
What I was doing for free was listed as a paying position
I applied for it but someone else received it
I was heart broken
Then I remembered the guidance counselor pulling me into his office
He asked me if I knew what counselors do
I guessed “boring paperwork?”
He smiled and said “we are supposed to do what you do.”
He told me to go back to school and get a degree in counseling.
Because I had a broken heart, when they hired someone else
I went back to school
I was a guidance counselor for almost thirty years
It was a job that was never boring.
Wiping own tears who made me smile were you,
Who never let my sorrows pile were you.
In a house haunting where I lived alone,
Who even made loneliness smile were you.
Few bother broods like me in busy world,
To my life’s lamp who supplied oil were you.
I recall playing as children long back,
One that let me win with a guile were you.
And to untidy and dishevelled me,
Tutoring long who gave some style were you.
_________________________
Ghazal |05.03.2025| remember, love
A scarlet-throated hummingbird, betrayed,
commences the annual rite of packing his nest,
in response to whimsical winds' pirouette
and the capricious moods of weather's ballet.
Distant friends once conspired in sunbeam pursuits,
beak-dipping in nectar teased from blossoms' allure,
whispers of the breeze tutoring flight's debut.
Without forewarning, save the whispers of history,
the wind turned, concealing its chilly shoulder,
snow's fragrance on its breath, contradicting denials.
Taking only essentials, nestled close to his breast,
an eccentric twig, a wisp of newborn down for nostalgia,
the unborn blueprints of a portico, a dream deferred.
Perched on a bare branch at dawn, the crimson aviator bids adieu,
soaring on a desolate breath, burden lightened,
leaving his heart with the capricious whimsy of sylphs.
Drift, drift, drift until the calm
Arrive at the crossroads of your sun
The peace you feel a release from harm
Metaphoric blast from a soporific gun.
A feeling deep from somewhere arrives
Gently caressing your visage
A sensory overload of pleasure drives
Tutoring perception, a perfect marriage.
You are control, you are the beat
The story is yours to make
The ending increases the body heat
Panting embarks a nervous wake.
Where was I then, how can it be
Interpretation a pointless thought
A dread creeps up, a fleeting see
Of a time I thought I sought.
Concomitant to foster
misgivings of wretchedness,
I harbor jealousy at young whip smart kids,
who already possess laudatory command
concerning salient technological knowhow,
far beyond paternal parental stage
yet speculate how child raising
could allow, enable and provide
insight into latest cutting edge binary wizardry.
Less impactful upon precocious
boys and girls hungry for knowledge
includes protracted time
fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters
experienced opportunities to
relish countless hours
tutoring son(s) and/or daughter(s)
patiently mentoring progeny
about rudimentary concepts
(plus edifying offspring
about all encompassing netiquette)
aided in turn with
sophisticated computer programs
(possibly created by little Einstein)
invariably lovingly bonding (yeah right).
I am a nerd/geek through and through,
my past time is seeing how something
works.
What really gets me going is numbers
and equations.
My nick name was little Einstein, I really
loved science.
I was the loner and math tutor after school.
Tutoring gave me the chance to socialize
and come out of my shell.
I enjoyed it until I had to tutor the captain
of our football team.
He was arrogant and he had the brains
of a kid in kindergarten.
And I was head over heels infatuated with
him.
Once we got over our stereotypes of each
other, we became fast friends.
He was actually smart and played the role
of an airhead.
When our walls came crashing down it was
a mutual attraction and respect.
I’m still pinching myself, who would have
thought the nerd and the captain(football)
would be together.
Yours truly,
Mrs Nerd
Alexis Y.
03-6-2020
A carnival robot once came to town
He fell into honey and almost drowned
We ran to his aid
He thanked us first grade
After tutoring us, we’re college bound
Where do fallen leaves go
before the snow
Fallings sliding slithering tutoring spiraling down
to the ground
Environmental meltdown
Decompose composite
Frozen solid
Covered by snow
Bio degraded re-arrange molecules particles
Compacted Marsh
Covered over by temperature in snow
To come back in Spring as grass or rose
11/20/19
Written word by James Edward Lee Sr 2019
Not easy to do as I have had twenty-five pets
I wish I was exaggerating but I am not.
The sweetest cat ever was Tommy Van Lets.
He was an escape artist, rarely ever caught.
He would be gone for days, coming home in the rain.
Discovered how to make a mama cry that woke me up.
He was my gentle green eyed guy, nuzzled like a train.
Loved him every second until I could not any more.
High school lad I was tutoring ran over Tommy one night.
Thinking it was hilarious, showing off, which brought me to tears.
Sadly, it was his grand way of pushing me away.
Helping him too much, and he, immature, for his years.
That sweet kitty baby used to sit in this lad’s lap.
Cuddling while I explained his English and math due.
I have not forgotten this betrayal or sadness of this child.
I guess he was pushing away my soft angel kitty too.
Written 9-27-2019
Contest: Favorite Pet
Sponsor: Regina Riddle
Background people
They walk among us, unseen, unappreciated, invisible.
We barely know them.
Because for us, they are background.
After a while, we might wave or nod our heads.
But how many do we invite to lunch?
Do we know anything about their lives?
Do we care?
We turn to them when we need something.
Extra tutoring, to pass a test, a letter mailed or a tooth fixed.
We rarely know anything about them.
They are our background people.
In street clothes, sans uniforms, we do not recognize them.
We rarely know anything about them.
Background people.
In our lives, every day.
A smile and a wave can go a long way, but we do not realize
to us they are invisible.
taught my art
how to breathe
now the quite game
cant sneak up on me
she changed her style
dresses you her hair
our work is defiled
words to compare
poetry left motion
got a tutoring job
cocrete shoes in the ocean
fishing for the missing mob
here i am teach'er pick me
leave molly pouting corners
she already knows mourners
know how to breathe
claim me from the dust
grasp my beating heart
learn me of this trust
that we may taught my art
?
MATHEMATICS
Most Momentous Majestic Monitor
Anytime Affirmative analyzing accuracy
Top Trainer tuning treating talent
Humdinger Hero having highest honor
Excellent Explorer explaining efficiently
Marvelous Methodical Mind Mender
Acquisitive Analytic approaching applying accuracy
Terrific Teacher thinking tutoring tactfully
Ideal Instructor initiating intense intelligence
Capable Cultivator countering correcting chaos
Sagacious Systematic Scientific Searcher sorting solution
10/15/15
FOR THOSE WHOM THE BELLS ARE TOLLING…
The acid rains have come and gone;
Leaving nuclear winters chasing
The purple autumns of our lives;
Dying bones, wrapped in parched skins,
Silhouette the inept horizons
Of the desert’s edge;
Famine, the silent emissary of death,
Carpets the naked altar of life:
Hunger tutoring the sacrificial lambs;
While in the shadows and hues
Of distant dawns, ships sail to the moon:
Leaving death smiling at the evil that men do.
THE MODERN DAY SOJOURNER TRUTH
Tired from the lack of work --------Trivial
Lazy, I am not.-------------------Search
Thinking about Non-Profit---------Self-Employment
Freelance Writing, Tutoring, Virtual Administrator, etc…---------Thumbtack
You can’t keep a real woman down.------------------Steadfast
Many aspirations I have.----------------------------------Praying
Gotta get up early in the morning.-----------------------------Mobile
To define my purpose----------------------------------------Harmonizing
To many negative thoughts------------------------------------Intune
To why I continue to be down---------------------------------- Enthused
This is not the measure I am in.------------------------------------Woman
I am just as strong as [any] man.----------------------------------Sojourner!
__________________________/
04/17/2014
Form: Acrostic/End-Line Word
1st Place
With a pretty
African - American
woman
in a park
Sex out of Doors!
I feel the weight
of the years upon me now
But I do have some memories
Which sustain me
when I get rejection letters and
nobody shows up for tutoring
Working not far
from my place on the Lower east Side
I relate strongly
to the peace in the
making
which is coming quite soon
BELIEVE IT
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