By Elizabeth Joy Levinson
Meetings are canceled.
Grades are still due at 5 pm.
Nothing is more important
than student safety.
The trash was not emptied last night.
Your test results are ready.
Please review. Please review.
Please review the coverage plan.
Submitted late: identifying thesis statements
Submitted late: using words accurately and precisely
Submitted late: self-reflection
There is a district wide network issue.
Let me know if you are unable to connect.
Communication will come.
Safety continues to be a priority.
There was an incident.
We will continue striving.
Woman’s Work
By Elizabeth Joy Levinson
It’s later now and
I’m washing grapes,
rolling them between
my thumb and fingers,
testing the give in the flesh,
sorting out the bad,
a gift for the week ahead,
which I’m already
not exactly dreading,
but holding against you,
still out of work, while
I’m in the classroom, diminishing.
And I’m already forgetting
how earlier today,
the tire blew out on I94,
the sudden rumble
and unbalancing,
your quick thinking
fast maneuvering,
getting us safely
to the shoulder, where we
emptied the trunk
to access the spare,
while semis sped
dangerously close,
their own trembling
carriages creating tides
that threatened to tumble
us, turn us over.
And I'm not sure
we've ever been
more vulnerable,
but I do know
that tomorrow
I will make 1500 choices
and I will never know
how many of them
were right.
Elizabeth Joy Levinson is a biology teacher in Chicago. Her work has been published in Whale Road Review, SWWIM, Cobra Milk, Anti-Heroin Chic, and others. She is the author of a full length collection, Uncomfortable Ecologies, from Unsolicited Press. and two chapbooks, As Wild Animals (Dancing Girl Press) and Running Aground (Finishing Line Press).
