all flourishing is mutual -rwk

Got half way between buildings when the downpour

Came spitting and bouncing with hail

Soaked in my jeans 

So I was dripping and cold soggy 

Shivering against new discomfort

When class started

Shocked as always to find myself the teacher

And the middle schoolers my youths to shape

We listened to serviceberry: an economy of abundance

Sitting under fluorescents 

Everyone damp

Everyone restless with the change of plans, curse the rain

Robin says listen to the old and obvious truth

Store your meat in the belly of your neighbor

Food should never have been a commodity

C asked me to explain to her

What supply and demand means

And I said imagine there are only a few oranges but everyone wants them

The price skyrockets

And V looked up into my eyes and said that doesn’t seem fair

They are stealing the oranges from us

Yes! Victory! Another anti-capitalist thought experiment

With my beautiful tweens

But then steeling implied thieves

And thieves sparked the memory of witnessing a shoplifting

And of a garage rummaged through by a stranger with an unmet need

And V’s mom losing her job

They live in a big house

But dad moved out

Mom is stressed even though she went to standford the fourth best school

She grew up poor and worked really hard to get a big house

Right now they don’t have enough to share

V is my mirror, white girls with moms whose academic prowess shone down

Let it all unravel let it all become clear let a parent’s panic seep backwards out of their child’s psyche

Scarcity of dry of time of curls of outlook of quiet of help of calm

I grabbed an umbrella for the walk back

The wind whipped it wonky 

Inside out I walked wrestling to curve the metal 

Back to the shape it must be 

It must be ready to save me from the impending tragedy of discomfort