Owls

Last night two stubby owls flew into the white oak,
the white oak in my front yard. First one, followed
immediately by the second snub-nosed bird.

I was seeing a friend to her car, and pointed,
"Look. Do you see the screech owls?"
She saw them fly - only then - one then the next.

"How did you know it was a screech owl though,
it's so dark, and they didn't whinny?"
I didn't say I might know them.

They could be the same birds that you and I saw
on one of our walks, the pair hovering over each other
on that Live Oak branch which overhung Oaklawn St.

It was a block away from here, a block and two years.
How long do owls live, how long do pairs remain together?
To my friend I just shrugged.

Be there, okay?

"I'm not sure I can find my way back here,
when we come back next week."

"Don't worry. I'll meet you up front
when you get here in the morning."

"Oh, thank you. I was worrying.
I thought I'd have to come on my own."

I was so happy to reassure this young man
that I would help him find his way through campus.

Even as I walked him to the car-rider pick-up line,
we looked back at the building, forward at crossing hallways.

He said he understood the layout, and
then asked if I'd still meet him out front.

Designing for one

A little thing happened

during computer class, but we were in the library
(new tile being glued down in the computer lab)
on the laptops - a wicked boring day -
so we were playing games.

The boys I sat next to were designing
with Frank Lloyd Wright studio,
so I joined them on my own laptop.
It had been a while since I designed.

My student, with the most incredible head of hair,
a loose curly afro, guided me through a few
screens I had shown him a year ago.
I skipped the frills, just worked the floor plan.

After ten minutes the bell rang. We left.
I walked to lunch with a fellow designer.
He said that today he had chosen a teenage boy
as his client, instead of a lawyer or an ambassador,

He said, "It was fun designing for a regular person,
rotating in double hung windows for one."
I did the same thing, and focused on doorways
and whether I wanted a library or a rec room.

We both found pleasure in designing the basics
(a deep satisfaction we had not known)
of this plan without the highest ceiling,
without artglass windows, without being atop a cliff.

Turning to my Interests

Today my students and I completed interest inventories
I said I liked NCIS, walking dogs, and reading.
I said I'd most likely watch tv when I got home.

It was a real statement, and one about which I was certain.
My students thought it cool that I watch Ziva and Gibbs.
I was glad to have regular hobbies, normal likes.

I said I wanted to become a writer. My hero,
right now, is Barack Obama. I didn't think of you
once while I was filling out the inventory.

How to have fun

I followed the same path - no, street - yes, street -
down Myrtle (named after the tree, pink crepe)
peddling on my old friend's Schwinn, lavender:
now with a deep, black, metal basket attached.
My mutt, my ten pound Toto-like mix,
sitting on a rug I folded into the basket's bottom.

It was not an easy start, nor did I think it would be.
At once she hopped out, flipped over, then stared.
I was certain it was time. Lifted her onto the rug.
Like a baby she stiffened her back legs at my request,
"Sit. Sit, Baby, sit." Weaving through the yard
over the St. Augustine. She crouched and held on to the wire.

This is the beginning. I knew it was time
to exercise, exorcise. I peddled and she sat.
Her head grey, little hand-like paws secure.
We will ride down Myrtle, and have already,
many more times. It' s a stunning boulevard
first thing in the morning and in the evening.