Lesson 1

At least I’ve learned this much:

Life doesn’t have to be

all poetry and roses. Life

can be bus rides, gritty sidewalks,

electric bills, dishwashing,

chapped lips, dull stubby pencils

with the erasers chewed off,

cheap radios played too loud,

the rank smell of stale coffee 

yet still glow

with the inner fire of an opal,
still taste like honey. 

Julie Hill Alger