The Pyre

Ekphrasis This poem was inspired by The Garden of Earthly Delights and day six of NaPoWritMo . I pick up the saw, fashioned to cut bark and wood, not flesh and bone. Yet it slices through my flesh and cleaves by bone-- until finally the scorched foot is extinguished. I pause for relief. But tendrils of flame worm into me, wriggling through my veins, squirming into my organs. My bones contort; my fevered brain recoils. I again pick up the saw.

Yesterday, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly , alongside Commissioner of Education Randy Watson and Kansas NEA President Mark Farr , announced that school buildings would be shut down for the rest of the school year , but learning would continue.  Like many educators, I was equally parts shocked and sad. Now that I've had some time to process the announcement, I am looking forward to hearing from the KSDE Continuous Learning Taskforce of educators , including Olathe's John Allison and Amy Hillman . This is an opportunity for us all to rethink what learning looks like in Kansas. It's a time of great possibility--one in which our most vulnerable students must be in the front of our minds. Today, rethinking what learning and teaching looks like for me as an educator in ways I have never done before isn't enough. I've always been a "doer" in my professional life so my first step into this uncharted territory is this amateur-style youtube video . It's not fan