Between Us and Ta-Nehisi Coates

S's Visit (Part 2)

There couldn't be an apter picture of these two who 

bring so much light and excitement 

everywhere they go 

Broad Art Museum

Laser Display

S's Visit (Part 1)

Surrounded by love

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Woke up like this

Came home to news that 

he'd gotten into his first choice

(with a bunch of scholarships)

last night.

SO much celebrating

until we went to see 

Logan and then cried 

all night.

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Five Years Ago in Yellow Springs...

Best graffito ever.

(Facebook reminded me.)

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Sometimes, Love

is a chat with an old student 

who baked a loaf of green bread

for St. Pat's day and drove here 

from 45 minutes away

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Daughter to Mama

"I made a new poem," she says.
"Let's hear it then," I say, half-listening as I start pulling dinner prep together.

"You can take the NuNu out of the Mama

                             But

You can't take the Mama out of the NuNu"

Reader, I melted.

(Turns out she actually said MoMA because she's really into making art; but I heard what I heard.)

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Houseplants Are Dirty

With no warning or precedent

the corn plant that had been 

growing taller for five years

sprouts tuberose flowers.

I feel so sad, I said to the teenager

that it's trying so hard to propagate.

He said: I can't believe you'd care 

so much about some horny plant.

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NuNu has Haiku

Dog Dog Dog Dog Dog
Dog Dog Dog Dog Dog Dog Dog 
Dog Dog Dog Dog-Poop

For the best effect, each "dog" should be in different tones of delight, love, and play (until the surprise ending, of course).

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Reading Buddy

All weekend long

we caught reading time 

together in the loft

(And yes, it was 

really so bright

she had to wear a hat.)

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Belated

 International Women's Day/

Day Without Women

Selfie

(I was tossing my head 

to keep the hair out of my face.

Meanwhile, in Lansing...

trees were falling all over our house)

Wind-ed

:/

It was a beautiful day,

but crazy windy.

On the highway

the car slid around 

from lane to lane.

Then we came home 

to this. Scary. There's 

a branch coming

through the ceiling

of NuNu's room.

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Kids Who Love Their Dad

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The Magic

of being able to take pictures of the sky

as your teenager drives home

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#MLGA

Over dinner, I vented a bit about a person who shall remain unnamed who told me that literature courses should teach "just the greats" i.e. Eurocentric canons.

Quoth the teenager: You mean their slogan is "Make Literature Great Again?"

Whoa. My favorite.

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Boozy Poppies

What you might do when
the kids are at school
and you and your work
friends are on break.

Just before I drank from the Solo cup
that held the paint-water
instead of from the Solo cup
that held the pinot.

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The Most Beautiful Thing in Las Vegas

is leaving it.

Really.

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Conference Sadness

            I ordered the Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding only because



 I missed everyone so much and it reminded me of eating it with the fam in New Orleans.



But it didn't help.

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TFW when you get dressed in the dark and in a hurry

Not sure whose pants these are

but I couldn't go to work in them

so I shopped for work pants 

at the grocery store today

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When Sibs Cooperate

They can find a smile stick : )

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Things I'm Oddly Proud About

I haven't pinned/liked/emulated any decor-porn with those mounted animal heads. Not even if they were obviously fake or were TOY stuffed animals. Just. No.

(Or as Baby Nu used to say: No! Very, very, NO!)

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When Mom's making dinner but you want treats

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Friendship as a butterfly

I did not expect a big crowd 

for my feminist-y Bollywood 

faculty forum presentation

Since so many fellow feminists 

were headed to Grand Rapids

on a bus, for a board meeting

but Nu was there 

(reading, grinning, asking Qs)

and lovely K made me a post-it butterfly 

in case I was stuck for luck.

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A Reminder

Together @ Sister Solidarity March, Lansing

I thought At's poster was a bit... leaky, 

but he got so many compliments on it.

Not to be too sappy about it,

but I love my students.

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Made it through today

I don't teach today, thankfully. K held a wake/media boycott of sorts at the bookstore and came bearing postcards for our senators. I showed up there, but was still shellshocked from the inauguration. I believe in deus ex machina.  Then I went back to my office and read held a book.

After dinner (Chipotle # Resistance Party), left Nu with Big A after dinner and went to go see Split with At... Who had seen it with friends earlier today (At is a huge Shyamalan fanboy). Not that reality isn't scary enough.

We tried to get into the 9:20 show, but it was sold out (!) and so we sat through LaLaLa-the mediocre high school musical movie--before we went to the 11:55 showing. And *then* went food shopping at 2:00 a.m. and marinated and prepped until about 4:00 a.m.

Exhaustion will get me through whatever day it is right now.

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NuNu is ready for the revolution

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Consumed

The children have left me
with this changed body
that holds onto their shapes
as though they're still inside

And the gulp of lovepride
worrylove happybrightfear
and other odd couplings
on the lip of my heart


___________________________________
Yesterday, lingering after dinner, smirky and teasing (and full of love), At and Nu told me that even if I was in a nursing home on Thanksgiving, they'd make sure to visit me (and feed me mashed potatoes). 

One more reason this week's going to be terrible for us...

Both of us 

had put a copy of 

Essence Magazine's commemorative issue on the Obamas

in the other's surprise

Christmas stocking...

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Reader

The sky has never been a wall
it has no borders to speak of
it takes my troubles everywhere

It's true that light is rationed--
but it's abundant by my birthday
(though scant at Christmas)

So I can read a book all day,
All Day. In a cinnamon haze
my sweet, dusty feast

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Moving

Today I have been moving
things across the table
as though a sudden ballerina
a flex of muscle and will
the shock of movement

Tomorrow's move might
well be a glacier
skeletal, powerful,
a dance in the register
of eras


Also, I love this silly song.

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Warmth

Sometimes it is the surprise present 

an old, dear friend slipped 

into our luggage as we said goodbye 

(a present I didn't find until weeks later 

because I left for the conference 

the very day we got home)

that is the sweetest

and warmest.

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On Being a Life-long Learner

So a dear (old) student posted this on FB, and I agreed with it so whole-heartedly that I typed 'YES' in all caps. Then I got a little self-conscious about my all caps and tried to explain with "This election has turned me into that crazy, old lady who types in all caps." Instead I ended up going with: "This election has turned me into a person who types in all caps." Because "crazy," "old," and "lady" shouldn't be insults. Sometimes, I'm my own best student.

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Opening

on the seams of my skin
longing's
cyclone lament

once we were hungry

face to face
hand in hand
an eye for an eye

admiring in the orchards

quarreling;
the moon hemmed
in the tallest branches

wordy memories of feasts

the soar of the sky
the sail of my cries
the crest of a smile

on the seams of my skin


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YES

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Home Again

blueprints

assert architecture

photographs

foster green secrets

and every night

we feel starlight

every day, clouds

hold our hands

floating possibility,

parting the sky

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Carrying Baby 2 versus Baby 1

LOVES it!



HATES it!


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We've never had a real wood stove before

It's mesmerizing

and makes us smell like 

we're far better campers 

than we actually are

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Love Truths

Got home after four days of conferencing today, After dinner, Big A went upstairs and fell asleep, and then the kids went to bed, and then I made a late-night grocery-store run.

He showed up as I was putting groceries away and stood there (not helping!) throwing and catching a cauliflower (not helping!) and... I must have given him a speaking side-eye. To which he responded:

Oh. I didn't actually come downstairs to help you. I came because I missed you so much and wanted to see you. *Grippy-Hug*

This thing is sweet AND tough.

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Conference Banquet

It was a great #SALA2017, and so glad I got to co-chair it with some wonderful and generous people. Here's a picture blurry enough to post without multiple permissions.

First Writing Project Together...

Saved as a Google doc with the super-serious title "BigDogandPuppy Project."

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Second Christmas

In YS, and the only picture I got all weekend was of the grandparents' goodbye...

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Lost in 2016

It's got to a point where I woke up around 3:00 am this morning to refresh NYT to see if there'd been anyone else after George Michael and Carrie Fisher.

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Happy Everything

Formally Dressed

O Reindear

NuNu has been wearing her X-Mas jammies
(which have penguins in honor of her school writing project)
for at least 24 hours;
At slipped into his this morning.

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Architect Elf

Winter's Fangs

Like an Angel: Nu's concert

Before Things Change

A visit to Washington, D. C.

"Arrival Times"

After three different emails with that ambiguous subject heading, K and I finally got together with our respective human offspring to go see Ted Chiang's stupendous, extraordinary, etc., etc. sci-fi short story turned movie Arrival.

It broke me. It's intensely emotional and threw me for a loop (haha). And the small blazes of happiness were because At worked out and shared the reveal way before it happened and my Nu pointed out in the first few minutes that "Come back to me" was used as a refrain. Before she lost interest in the movie and took a tiny snooze.

Speaking of which, it's the first movie in a long, long time that I didn't slip a nap into. I even napped during--please don't tell my kids--The Force Awakens.

Although they've known all about it for years.

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