My Best Teacher

(for my mom on Mother's Day 2008)

Grammar in Context

Lounging in the king-size bed you share with Dad,
the sheets cool against by skin,
you teach me about strong verbs.
Avoid forms of “to be,” you say.
Together we look at my writing, and you circle all the
is’s, am’s, are’s, was’s, were’s, has been’s, have been’s
in my paper.
You tell me to choose more specific verbs
like saunter, indulge, doze, chortle, grimace, and bellow.
This lesson is repeated years later
in my graduate writing courses
and in my own teaching.


Music Education

Andy and I sprawl out on the yellow living room carpet
as you lay the needle carefully into the groove,
the crackling distinct on the stereo speakers,
and you share with us
your first loves
John Lennon, Iron Butterfly, and the James Gang.


Geography

Drawing a map,
you carefully explain the best route
to get to our hometown church,
because though we’ve been to Mass
every weekend
for the past 16 years,
sometimes by car, sometimes by bike,
I have no idea
how to get there.


Advanced Geography

You
my patient, attentive passenger on two road trips into the great wide open
first to Arizona
across sun baked I-40,
through the Petrified Forest, Painted Cliffs, pine trees and palm trees
and three years later to Georgia
across rain soaked I-24,
past the Grand Ole Opry, blue grass, and the Chattahoochee.
Both times in an F-150
that I didn’t really feel all that comfortable driving
And so you checked my blind spot for every lane change,
assured me that it was safe,
laughing contentedly on long stretches of endless highway
while Josh Groban, MxPx, and classic rock played in the background.




Driver’s Ed

You drove the stick shift more jauntily than Dad,
the tell-tale head nod of the passengers,
signaling the not always smooth transition
from one gear to the next.
You taught me to master the clutch in my empty high school parking lot
and on gravel roads outside of town.
The test always came on our drive back into town
when I made the left turn
on an incline
from a stand still
in front of oncoming cars.