First Day of School

My Hometown Poem #109

Skateboards, bookbags, bikes.
Steam rises in the summer heat,
humidity so heavy you can feel it
like a sleeve on your skin, dew 
glistening on emerald lawns, 
overripe gardens overflowing 
with bounty. Moisture condenses 
on windows, forming diamonds 
that sparkle in the morning sun. 
Clicks, clacks and laughter cut 
the early silence on a quiet street. 

A yellow bus rolls slowly to a stop,
the creak of the door cranking open 
interrupting the chatter. One by one, 
small riders step up, jostling, joking,
wavering between anticipation
and fear, nervously filling the seats
with promise, passengers to a future 
that will unfold in gleaming hallways, 
spilling out of bright, bulky backpacks, 
moving through metal detectors,
punctuated by the pounding sound 
of sneakered feet running, vibrating 
phones humming, the squeak 
and clang of lockers opening 
and slamming shut. 

The door closes and the din 
on the sidewalk is gone again.
It’s the end of summer but today
marks a change in seasons, 
a new beginning. Our precious, 
fragile diamonds are on the bus.

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Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Stephanie Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

LettersfromIowans, Iowa

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Lake City

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Wini Moranville, Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains, Washington, D.C.

Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Urbandale 

Macey Spensley, The Midwest Creative, Davenport and Des Moines

Larry Stone, Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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