No One Really Knows...

...cries she with silent lips.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
from the sonnet "The New Colossus"
by Emma Lazarus.

No one really knows what happened. Will anyone investigate or is it just another black teenager dead out on the highway? Another youth gone from us too soon.
ak

-Someone just awoke and arises from the natural elements. He begins to walk down the highway and to the 24 hour convenience store about two miles away. It's the middle of the night, but he's hungry.

-This is the Midwest, supplier of food to the entire world. A good place to raise your kids. A balanced people with traditional values.

-He's homeless and weak. A new graduate, only 19.

-He falls, trips really, as his jeans get into the way of his feet. He's lost weight.

-There he is on a highway near the interstate. Waiting, gathering strength to get back up again, he hullucinates. He hears a wolf cry. May be its a dog. He's too upset. "How did it get this way?" he thinks and cries to himself.

-Around the bend comes a semi-truck...may be. It could be the moon. Did he notice the moon before. "Oh, what the fuck!' he yells as he pulls his arms and slowly positions himself to stand upright.

-How many days has it been since he'd had enough food and drink?

-Shallow puddles nearby. It's springtime in Iowa. A semi-truck is coming 'round the bend.

-He didn't know the number was two. Two semi-trucks not one. He never found out. Does it matter? It only took the one.

-One semi going down the highway near the interstate hit and killed a teenager last night. "No charges will be brought." That's what the news said, anyway.

"No one's to blame. That's good," we all think.

-In my mind, he's still there lying on that highway. I wonder what his parents think.

How did it all get this way?

moonlitetwine
pic, http://www.voamass.org/Portals/21/African%20America%20teen%20boy%20b_w.jpg

Mothers' Day for Mothers Torn Apart

"Most (mothers apart) used to be part of a family structure and were, in the main, its lynchpin. After divorce or separation, many were ostracised from that family, deliberately and maliciously, and denied the opportunity to support the well-being of their children." MATCH Mothers Apart From Their Children



As Mothers' Day quickly aproaches here in the United States, it is a time when children remember Mommy kisses on the forehead or cheek as they finally go to sleep each night. It's a time to remember your mother and how much you were begging for mercy, after you flipped to her last switch, and you knew full well something severe was deserved. It's a time to try counting how many times you said, "I'm sorry," or "I love you."



As a mother, no one can deny your identity in being a mother. You were there at the time. Even if a mother is under sedation, mother and infant know one another, passively as a flower knows its leaves. Assuredly, you recommend survival of your child. Redeemingly, the child eats for you.



Throughout a child's ups and downs, a mother cares for her child, as a lion cares for her cub, gently and protectively. A mother will look around outside before her child goes out to visit a friend, ride a toy or just to play in the dirt. She guards her child in the aisles of the store. She advises, hoping her child has listened well, then, repeats the advice again and again just to be sure.



But, if there is some reason that you have been torn apart from your child or children, there is no substitute or remedy. Far too many times mothers are being intentionally kept from their children through manipulation, brainwashing and other pschological advantages another adult can place over a child. Sometimes, the battle to just see your child is overwhelming and seems to be harming her or him by the process. Sometimes, a mother will intentionally stop trying to make contact with that person she's known since before its birth in order to give him or her some kind of peace deservedly needed.



It is all too true, that children may never see their mother for months, years at a time. Often Mother is gone, and there is no regret, no desire, no missing Mother and no wanting to wish her a "Happy Mother's Day."



I feel saddness for these children and for the mothers apart from them, really apart. How much does a child miss without a mother's gentle caress on her son's back or a semi-good haircut her daughter stopped receiving. I feel badly for society, when any mother is apart from her child. Who better to know when a bully shows up on the street than the bully's mother? Can anyone more readily teach a youngster "Stranger Danger" on a daily basis, than a mother if she's there and not torn apart during upbringing?

Whether at home, at school or out in the neighborhood, mothers are one of the most valuable qualifiers for a healthy child and a stable society.

Whispers

Whisper at my doorway,
And I’ll understand.
Say hello as you close
Your eyes at night, and
I am by your side.

Buy a newspaper tomorrow.
Open up the mysteries of life.
It’s all the same.
I remember the smell of you.
The mystery’s in the game.

Watch a foreign movie on TV.
Visit the ballet with your friends.
Somewhere between the beginning
And the end, you’ll hear the
Butterfly in your heart.
Hello. It’s me.

Say hello to anybody.
Walk in cool September rains,
Make a masterpiece for
Everyone to see. I will always
Be stepping softly,
So, you’ll know it’s me.

Wherever you are; whatever
You are doing, it’s okay.
As long as you are happy and safe,
It’s okay with me.
It’s okay with me.

Ann Klein
07.21.06

The Tree Monsters

Author, Ann Marie Klein

Book One

It’s true that monsters exist in nature. Tree monsters exist. I know that. It’s hard to really see them, because trees are all around us here. But, if you look carefully, you can kinda tell which trees are really monsters. It’s in the way they sit on the land. It’s in how they bend, and sometimes a tree monster will be the one tree that refuses to bend in the wind. Or, some tree monsters bend every which way and so differently from the rest.

But, we musn’t be afraid of tree monsters. They won’t hurt you. In fact, they have a job to do, a very important one, too. You see, tree monsters are responsible for bringing about the seasons. Each year they have to move about the land, and believe me – this is a very difficult assignment for any tree. The tree monster must act responsibly above all things. How else can we know that the seasons are changing and another year is coming fast unless the tree monster does his job?

Book Two

There are women tree monsters too, certainly. I don’t want to leave them out…or the children. Oh, there are children tree monsters. Ya know? Gosh, without those little children tree monsters, how much easier the job would be, but definitely everybody in tree monster village loves those little tree monster children. Can you imagine? Well, it’s hard enough trying to move around without humans noticing as it is. But, get about twenty little tree monster children runnin’ around, bumpin’ into each other and everything, (they are kinda clumsy, being so young and not used to having to move around a lot) well, you got problems.

That’s why most of the work tree monsters do, like the traveling they do, is done at night. You see, people can’t really see very well at night. Things could move, and people won’t know. If they do see a tree move at night, they’ll just think it’s their eyes playin’ tricks on them. And, soon they’ll forget all about telling enough people. So, that’s how they stay safe, which is a good thing. Without them doing their job, things would be a mess.

Book Three

If ya go out on the road driving or may be if you just sit down around where there are some trees, you should just look around. You don’t wanna look too hard. You see, tree monsters don’t like everybody knowin’ their business to begin with. Second, if you stare at a tree monster, that monster will get embarrassed, and that’s not a good thing. We don’t want to hurt its feelings. Not even by hurting accidently do we want to hurt them. So, we just play like we’re outside, agreeing with nature, noticing everything we can in glancing here and there. You know? I’m sure you have seen other people do this, just looking around the outside.

But, if you are looking for a tree monster, keep in your mind’s eye, (that’s the little picture you make up in your head to keep things) that one special tree that looks a little out of place, out of the ordinary or just plain special. Think about that one tree for awhile, and at the same time, look around. Notice everything else you can. You never know; you might find one or two, may be a whole group of tree monsters. If you do…if you find an entire group of tree monsters, feel lucky. Why? ‘Cuz that’s how they travel - in those groups. You gotta know when that happens, pretty soon something big is going to take place in nature.

So, tonight you might just consider what’s going on out there while you are sleeping. If I were you, I would turn my ear just a little bit, so you can get a good listen to anything special that might just be goin’ on out there, out there in our nature. Don’t go to the window. You know what might happen if you hear a noise and open the window curtain real quick. Those little tree monster children will be scared to death, and we wouldn’t want any little tree to die needlessly. They may not just die. But, I’m sure they would start runnin’ around all over the place, causing such a scene and making all the adult tree monsters try to figure out real quick what the heck they’re gonna do.

But, if you hear a little noise, that sound like there might be some action out there, say a little prayer. Say a prayer and smile, cuz you’ll know that God is doin’ his business and letting nature take control of the situation of helping us live on this Earth.