today my professor said there are scientific studies saying,
“we are actually soft-wired to be hyper-competitive, we are more hardwired to be empathetic”
as in
there is this illusion that we are born brutal,
born tough,
born sinners,
born evil
this is just a falsity.
this is just some cover up.
this is just a coping mechanism.
this could be a long poem
or I can just end it here with
hey, give your friends
way, way
more hugs.
She used to boom and bustle,
now she yearns and yawns.
‘Cause Philadelphia is a city tired.
her bones ache these days and she’s been napping
more than she used to.
we saw her waking over a month ago,
we saw her squint her eyes at the sun.
(’cause Philadelphia is a city hopeful)
we asked, “who is going to help you?
who will make you coffee?
who will say, ‘good morning love, you need to wake up.’
who will tell your story?”
she said, with a smile, that she is waiting for her revival,
ever waiting for her promising patrons to do their part.
she said, “the answer lies in the ones growing up near my groggy eyes.”
she said the answer lies in her children
for they are her historians,
fact-finders, fact-livers, perfect primary sources.
they are the story-tellers of both her tale and their own-
“if anyone is to save me,” she spoke,
it has got to be them.
bouncing back and back and back and
believing “i’m sorry(‘s)“
every time they are spoken
and not questioning “i promise“
or “i love you” or “i mean it(‘s)“.
they are everyone’s advocate
they are proud
and generous
they are forgiving
they are relentless
they are effervescent
and curious.
they are teachers.
-&
The fountain of youth
need not be discovered.
you can lose your latest wrinkle in the
presence of children-
their energy urging yours out of hiding.
______
Acrylic paint splatters do not come out and neither does the impact made while obtaining them
I heard a boy sing today
better than half the adults I know
and I made him pinky swear he would keep at it
pinky swear he would practice even though his teacher
told him to knock it off and his friends (sometimes
more than sometimes) teased him about it.
I don’t know for sure that he will remember our pinky promise
but I don’t know for sure that he won’t.
______
there are things your GPA is not going to help you with.
there are lessons that need to be taught to you by those half your height
(maybe in a classroom with seats too small for your frame)
there is knowledge dropped in locations unexpected
that you will only pick up on if you’re in those locations
and listening.
let us not be stubborn.
let us realize
education comes in a multitude of forms
and for me, mid march,
education came in very small packages,
in classrooms of kids
in candid clips of communication
in quotables like,
“greatness takes time” as a boy hovered above his mural tile,
planning but not yet painting
and in sadder stanzas like,
“your grownups must care more than mine care.”
there are things your GPA is not going to help you with.
there are lessons that need to be taught to you by those half your height.
________
at their core children are three things:
genuine
honest
kind
they are not afraid to ask the tough stuff. the “weird” stuff. the real stuff.
that,
above all else,
is what i appreciate in them.
-&
People talk about service
as though it were one-sided
to serve, after all, comes from the word
Servus– slave in Latin.
no one talks about how it is a give and take
or really
a not a give at all, just a share,
see,
at twenty-five revolutions around the sun
I know some things about some things
but the kids I met in Philly, most with merely a quarter
of revolutions as I,
know some things about some things I will never be unlucky enough to know
and have some perspective about some things I should really want to know.
‘ cause I didn’t grow up North Philly
or anywhere resembling it.
I grew up suburban,
I grew up four-bedroom, packed lunches, new clothes when I wanted them,
love notes, warm hugs, kind hearts when I needed them.
If I don’t think I have a thing or two to learn from youth less fortunate than I
then chances are, I have more than a thing or two to learn from somebody.
-&
& 