Tutoring Tanya and Jessica
These are two affable intelligent Chicana students
in their first year at the university.
They are hungry for knowledge.
They want to know what words
like procurement and innovation mean.
I am tutoring them in political science.
We meet once a week
in the dorm complex commons at Williams Village.
We relax on a loveseat and easy chairs
around a large round end table.
It is the kind of furniture you might
expect to find in any American home.
Jessica sits on my left. Jessica is summer.
Tanya sits on my right. Tanya is winter.
It is a balmy spring evening.
Jessica is wearing a hot cinnamon
candy red sweatshirt turned inside out
with matching red lipstick and nail polish.
She is wearing blue jean cutoffs and slouches back
with her feet on the table, her red socks and long legs.
Tanya is dressed in aquamarine mountain mint socks
matching plaid and white shorts and solid tee shirt.
Her feet are up in the chair, her knees up, her legs apart.
She gently rubs the skin under the left thigh
with her fingertips and pink nails,
then she plays with her beautiful brown hair.
We have a lively discussion on how to
re-invent government how to save money
by one-stop shopping like putting voter registration
in the same place we go for a driver’s license.
We discuss re-inventing financial aid for students.
We laugh a lot. The both have beautiful brown eyes
that glisten when they smile, and long brown hair.
Best friends since fifth grade, although taking poly sci
was accidental, they tell me they do everything together.
I am a timber wolf lost in the wilderness.
(The South Carolina Review)
