Because our home’s so far away,
I’m the first picked up by the bus each day
and the very first stop after school –
which makes every student on our route
sit forty minutes more each afternoon
and me, an unwelcome sight.
Full of hormones and hate,
those in last few rows of the long, yellow bus
moan and groan
as soon as I climb on,
making me nervously skitter to the nearest seat
where I crouch
and hide
and wait.
The hardcore insults come later
and louder
cloaked in the anonymity of the rumbling and motion
of our rolling prison.
Deaf to what he hears,
the bus driver just stares ahead
and goes where he’s told.
United by the same neighborhood,
in the opposite direction,
they snarl and nip at the back of my neck –
piercing my thin skin.
It’s us versus them,
in every nasty word.
But the “them” they think I am
is absolutely absurd.
When their rabid, backseat words
have more than their usual bite,
I step from the bus
and race to the woods,
searching for a way to shake the hurt
in the thick, dim patches of unpeopled forest.
I disappear among the ember-colored leaves
which cap the many trees
before the heavy freeze
steals the color from the land.
And there, I simply am.
Where I step to the sound of my breathing,
the movement of the clouds,
and to the busy hush of forest life about,
reminding me to go about my own;
and to heal my wounds
with the comforts of home.
Author: Anne Celano Frohna
I have been writing for as long as I could hold a pencil in hand and would not feel complete without it.
And I actually made a meager living at it (and as an editor) for 25 years.
I worked for newspapers and magazines, in graphic arts and advertising, and wrote several local history books.
But I have also taught English in Japan, been a Nanny/family chef in Italy, worked in and for museums, was an Airbnb Superhost for four years, as well as an Etsy shop owner, where I sold vintage items I found over the years at thrift stores and yard sales.
After moving to Arizona with my family in 2010, I completed a series of different writing projects, including two books of creative non-fiction:
Just West of the Midwest: a comedy (Based on journals I kept during my two years as an English teacher in rural Japan.)
Within Close Range: short stories of an American Childhood (Short stories and poems about growing up as the middle of five children in suburban Chicago.)
But in the past few years, I have found my voice in poetry.
I am a mother of two wonderful girls, Eva (26) and Sophia (24) and wife to one wonderful husband, Kurt.
In 2023, with our girls grown and off on their own, my husband and I packed up our things and moved to the tip of Italy’s heel, to the Salento region, where I continue to work on my poetry, as well as a new fiction project, and indulge in my passion for mosaics - all of which you can view on my Instagram page @ acfrohna.
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Dog-eared Stories by anne celano frohna 