GUEST BLOG: Tightrope

I have a hole inside nobody knows about

and they say, “Physician heal thyself.”

But I can’t make it heal.

It’s the greatest humiliation in my life.

Four years ago, white supremacy lynched mi’jita’s brown body.

Four years ago, and I wonder a lot of times:

how many adults

how many children

dogs and cats

rivers and streams

and other species 

have died in the last four years?

Did anybody grieve themselves to death over them?

Has anybody grieved themselves to death over them?

Except for the way I have.

I’m like the walking dead

to anyone whole or healthy.

They look at me like it’s a meanness.

A smallness.

Evil.

If the world is a tightrope, then the cardinal rule is—

you never look down.

Why can’t I stop looking down?

Why is that? 

— Manuel Garcés Jr. 

Manuel Garcés Jr. (@manuelgarcesjr) currently serves as a Continuing Education Provider (CPE) in Texas who has been approved and registered by the State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency.

He is completing his twenty-sixth year in education as a reading and writing advocate for elementary, secondary, and multigenerational adult writers in Texas. He recently joined The David Rice Method, an education consulting group that helps education service centers, school districts, departments, administrators, teachers, and students achieve their goals in literacy (www.davidricemethod.com). He also has a blog at pebble.substack.com.