For the Bus Stop

These squares of sidewalk are holy ground

for waiting on tip toes and peering around the corner

for running late and waving frantically

for holding hands and looking both ways.

This is where the saints of transportation stop

to claim little learners for a chapter of the day,

salvaging the notebooks, mittens, and lunch boxes

our small and inexperienced stewards leave behind.

This is where we let go and hold lightly

with simple words that have been boiled down,

a few phrases that try to speak the language

of our bodies wrecked with love for the little ones.

This is where we commission them each morning

for courage, kindness, curiosity and candor,

an anointing that fumbles each time to state clearly

how much their lives matter to you and the whole.

This is where they are released each afternoon

sweaty and tumbling back into our arms with stories

about their vantage of things and big feelings

aimed your way, the safest place to feel them all.

This is where we look around the neighborhood

and remember we are students of our geography,

still learning new ways to be neighbors

who wait together and mark time with words of love.

Use chalk to decorate the sidewalk at your bus stop with words of hope and safe keeping to make the new school year.