Happy Birthday Karen--to the best teacher and storyteller I know.

For Elise


Elise is perched on her tiny chair
                    like a Valentine angel,
          her Sunday School shoes
                    dangle shiny, motionless.
Her mouth is a small "O".

I am telling her a story.

I drag it up its steep ascent
          like a chain lift
And as she latches on,
          feel the weight in her attention.
Her eyes widen and narrow,
Her brows knit and arch,
          at every harrowing drop
          at each toilsome climb
                    or twisted loop d'loop.
She leans with me at hard turns.
She has abandoned her steady little self
                              to my wild ride.

Elise shines.
Her little face glows golden
          completely unaware of its magic.
She is guileless and raw,
Pink fresh and open as a cup.
Her wide-eyed awe,
          so delicate,
                    so rare,
So innocently offered up
          to my callused and practiced palm
That I brace myself against the staggering heft
                             of this fiduciary duty.

To Elise
I must speak only the truest things.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAREN!
GOOD LUCK FOR THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR
TO ALL THE WONDERFUL
TEACHERS OF THE WORLD.