My girls forgot their calculators for their math midterm...

I noticed about 20 other kids peering out the door waiting for their parents and as I pulled out, there was my neighbor pulling in - stony-faced, alone bringing a forgotten calculator.

There was a fender bender in front of the school - yep, another parent standing outside her car with the forgotten calculator in hand.

Ode to the Forgotten Calculator (TIMES TWO!!!)

Ode to the forgotten calculator
(on Math Midterm Day)

I forgot you.
I can only remember how you felt, cool under my fingertips,
The way you calculated in the night,
the numbers appearing so blithely on your screen.


I forgot you,
The many lost permutations
And now I, as a distracted teen,
Must endure moments
muttering...I don't remember how to do that...
without you.

Forgive me, Mom
lost morning minutes, when I cannot resist
the urge to frantically text you
back to the trenches
to rescue me from desperation.


Forgive me
the stony silence when your hand thrusts forth,
bringing salvation back to my fingertips,
I breathe a sigh of relief
and notice a clementine is also there.

I turn back
facing my fate transformed
many more peering
through the door anxiously
desperately seeking
their own redemption.