Cooking with my 7th grade students on a Friday night

Use the whole bag of chocolate chips,

Yes, we can listen to your music, just as long as....

"What does degrading mean?"

Have you ever
cut an onion before? 

There is a difference between 5 and a 1/2 and 5 half cups..
(this shows up outside math class... sorry, kiddo. ) 

"Will you help me open the oven?"

Can you help me feel competent?

"You're house is so clean. "

"We got this. You go relax ... or something"

"You mean we are gonna eat together? That's cool."


****

After I dropped you off,
I sat in the dark
trying to understand why
it feels like
the walls are expanding.

I remembered Brooklyn,
a sun-filled Starbucks window
a foreign street, my journal:

"If I love them,
It means saying goodbye
to Ohio. If I let myself,
It means, I won't return
the same. Or at all."

It seems, the lesson repeats.

goodbye Brooklyn,
I never wanted to leave you.
hello Richmond,
I'm not just trying you out. 

this means opening
the doors to love's accompaniments:
peeling onions,
middle school girl shrieking
in this family room,
cookies in hand, watching 
as they walk
through the projects,
to their front doors.