Her message scrawled on the dotted lines1
inside the heart-shaped appreciation form
“You always show love
when I need it the most”
strangely soothing, if missing any detail,
or known reference,
defying exam proctors & test protocols
yet still a perfect score, she then took flight
vanishing into the post-graduation cosmos
where assessments, affronts
& glimmering resentments
are all abandoned to the satellites.
She must be soaring now, streaking
somewhere into the barred spiral galaxy
the journey invisible
only a thousand light years away
where old souls somehow meet again
our molecular energy rearranged
as another source of light
& warmth
unimaginable.
Early into solar eclipse, Sandusky, Ohio, April 8, 2024.
Perhaps it’s time to clean up around the desk, after posting this, of course.
1
Lovely poem! Truly amazing and inspired!
It must be gratifying to get such a positive response from one of your students. I know how much you care about them!
I do think we intermingle our minds and emotional connections with people thoughout our lives and they have a lifelong effect on us. My teachers have remained an important and steadfast inner voice that still guides me.
(Side note -It may be my innate pessimism and general foreboding but I hope this doesn't refer to her untimely death in any way. It's the first thing I thought of.)
<3