My dad forgets to read to me

My dad forgets to read to me

He sometimes has to work late


So my mom reads to me instead,
But she doesn’t say the words as funny as he does

He sometimes get stuck in traffic

So my mom asks my older brother to read to me
But he reads too fast and tries to skip pages

My dad sometimes has work to do at home

So my mom asks my sister to read to me
And although she is older then me
She tells me to just look at the pictures and say the words out loud

My dad sometimes has to do something
Because our house needs fixing

So my mom says to read by myself
And I spend the time
Reading alone in my room…

But every once in a while

My dad is home

And does not have work to do

Or errands to run

And it is our special time together

And when he starts to read

He lays on my bed

And before I know it

He falls asleep
But I know he thinks he did a good thing
Even though sometimes my dad forgets to read to me…

a poem about courage for Lisa Hoon

Courage is setting yourself free

As she maneuvered
her entourage
of a motorized wheelchair
trained assistance dog
and personal assistant
into the Olympic size swimming pool
at the health club

I thought that it was
a nice idea
to come and sit
at the edge of the pool
and that it would probably
be therapeutic
or at least a refreshing
change of place
for someone in a wheelchair

but she scooted her vehicle
into the front of the first swim lane
and as she was chatting to her assistant
the dog just sat there by the door
resting

her assistant reached behind her and
lifted her torso up and placed
her at the edge of the pool

as I was sitting in the
nearby whirlpool
at 4: 30 in the afternoon
I became curious
about what they were going to do next?
was she going to just go by the water and sit
or was there something more
in store

when she was tossed in the water
I realized she must have been a swimmer before
you could tell by her upper body
that she had once had a sleek physique
that swimmers have
powerful shoulder muscles

she started with a back stroke
her thick arms making a V stroke
her clenched fists
providing an engine to paddle her body
down the lane
since she had no control over her legs
the graceful placement of her head
during her swimming stroke
face up in the pool
forced her knees to come up
to the surface
this improvised technique
had half her body moving furiously
and the other half
being dragged behind

she had an unusual turn
in which instead of using the wall
of the turn to propel off
she turned first sideways
and then circled back
and went on her way
back down the lane

but as she finished the turn
I saw a peaceful look
on her face

she had found
freedom of movement
once again
in a swimming pool
in the water
nothing to hold her back

in one of the most dangerous places to be
when you have lost control
of most of your body

I met a bus driver from Portage yesterday at Ortonfest

and he had his seven month old son with him and had sat down next to me. My friend Mark was a little drunk and loud, which is not unusual for him, but a little unsettling for the crowd around us.

He said "You look familiar" and I tried to figure out why and we could not calculate an answer as to where we could possibly have met.

After the music died down he asked me again, "What do you do?" and I said I run an alternative school and I am also a wrestling coach. He said he used to drive school bus for Portage High School, in particular the wrestling team...and asked "Are you from DeForest High ?"

I said yes, my sons wrestled there. He was a State Champion.

Yes, I saw your son wrestle, clearly he was the best wrestler out there. I also drove to the State tournament and got a chance to see him...

It is indeed a small world.