Fall/Winter 2014
Rick Hartwell is a retired middle school (remember, the hormonally-challenged?) English teacher living in Moreno Valley, California. He believes in the succinct, that the small becomes large; and, like the Transcendentalists and William Blake, that the instant contains eternity. Given his “druthers,” if he’s not writing, Rick would rather still be tailing plywood in a mill in Oregon.
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Teachers’ Rest Home
I used to tell them I started teaching
When dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
Now I have become one, full circle;
I remain in a fossilized past while
The myth of my life has become
The reality of their visitations.
Family members study our remains
On Sundays at the Shady Rest museum.