On Not Flying to Hawaii

I could be the waitress
in the airport restaurant
full of tired cigarette smoke and unseeing tourists.
I could turn into the never-noticed landscape
hanging identically in all the booths
or the customer behind the Chronicle
who has been giving advice
about stock portfolios for forty years. I could be his mortal weariness,
his discarded sports section, his smoldering ashtray.

I could be the 70-year-old woman who has never seen Hawaii,
touching her red lipstick and sprayed hair.
I could enter the linen dress
that poofs around her body like a bridesmaid,
or become her gay son
sitting opposite her, stirring another sugar
into his coffee for lack of something true to say.
I could be the reincarnated soul of the composer
of the Muzak that plays relentlessly overhead,
or the factory worker who wove this fake Oriental carpet,
or the hushed shoes of the busboy.

But I don't want to be the life of anything in this pitstop.
I want to go to Hawaii, the wet, hot
impossible place in my heart that knows just what it desires.
I want money, I want candy.
I want sweet ukelele music and birds who drop from the sky.
I want to be the volcano who lavishes
her boiling rock soup love on everyone,
and I want to be the lover
of volcanos, who loves best what burns her as it flows.

Alison Luterman

11.11.10

Volleyball


After eight years of coaching, I finally saw my time and effort pay off. This season in volleyball was by far the best we've ever had. After years of horrible attitudes, crazy abusive parents, girls quitting, being called a racist because I didn't play the right person, etc, I finally had a season to be proud of. I had six seniors on my team this year. The majority of these girls I had coached for all four years, and I love them. They are such sweet and dedicated young ladies. I already miss hanging out with them and all the fun we had at practice. I've always had three goals for my team: have a winning season, win a tournament, make it to Regionals. This year, for the first time, we accomplished all three goals, having never accomplsihed even one before!! I am so proud of my team, and am starting to feel like coaching might be over for me. While it's fun to coach, the politics and fundraising that goes into making a team work has become tedioius and overwhelming. I wish it was just about winning a game.

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