Reflection #1: "Difference"

Ellen Bass' poem "Relax" speaks humorously of some horrors life can throw our way. "Bad things are going to happen" is the first line; not what you might expect after reading the title. In this same way teaching will throw each and every one of us for a loop now and then. Even the best teachers have horrible days. In response to Bass' poem I followed her form to create my own piece entitled "Difference".

Difference

Everything that can happen will.

Your umbrella will have a hole during a downpour

and your school laptop will  make a sickening “whrr”.

A student will sneak in their hot fries and forget where he hid them

until the cockroaches enjoy their snack. Then

bed bugs join the train from student A to your classroom.

Your alarm clock will decide to die

that Wednesday morning you have a 7:10 meeting, the one where

the principal just had to join. Or your students

will remember they’re dramatists

and reenact soap operas all period long. And your other computer-

the one with Windows 8 you never really understood- will contract a virus

that requires you to prove you weren't downloading illegally to

every person that gives you “the look”.

Your pants will rip.

No matter how much grading you get done during plan,

how much copying, you’ll lose your classroom key,

students' assignments and your ability to spell. If your grade book

doesn’t receive every food stain

possible during speed triathlons of eating,

you’ll come home to find there is no food in

your refrigerator, you aren’t paid for another week,

and all the dollar menus require more gas to reach than is in your car—and the oil light dings.

There’s a saying about a silver lining for every cloud.

Where even in the heaviest of rains, something positive

awaits you as well. But that doesn’t help a drowning worm.

In the gutter—Niagara falls to bugs and insects—the water rushes

and the worm floats helpless. It is at this point

the worm might look up if it had eyes.

It could look up at the silver lining.

Then it could see the positive of the child rescuing its brethren in neon galoshes just before the sewer.

So here’s the lining, the upside, the positive

light in the dark. Your students make you rethink your job, you’ll get frustrated,

find out all the chocolate in the vending machine is gone

and your coffee pot broke. You’ll feel helpless.

But wriggle into the safety of the child’s hands as

They pull you from the gutter; how one act makes a difference

and the difference is with you.