One Last Time

The last slam of a locker rings out,

a metallic echo ringing down the empty hall

outside my classroom, empty too, their footsteps

fading away, the soft padding of his sneakered feet

squeaking and the sharp click of heels accompanying him,

hand in hand, leaving, and the school goes quiet,

the desks now straightened, neatly arranged,

facing the center as I like them, a circle drawing us together,

a classroom readied for a new class, not my own,

but I sit here awhile longer, long after the last bell

has rung, dismissed us all, sent is out into the summer,

into our lives beyond the classroom, sitting here still,

the chalkboard wiped clean, a new slate, fresh chalk,

the books accounted for, and stacked, papers graded

and grades tallied, all done but the lights turned off

before I go, the door locked, one last time, but still

I sit here, in the silence of my classroom remembering

Steve and Debbie and Greg and Randy, remembering

a first classroom long forgotten, so long ago,

so far removed from this one where I sit now, remembering,

youthful faces filling the desks around me, years of faces,

and even now their noise is loud in my ears, the ears

of memory hearing them, remembering their drama and victories,

their fears and loss, and my own, remembering their laughter

and shouts, the hallways filled with sound, their sound,

this soundtrack of youth now silenced,

now but an echo played in my head, a song stuck there,

fading away into the memories I carry, memories

packed away as I packed away their papers and

projects and exams, packed them into a briefcase

carried home for grading, and carried back,

a briefcase empty now this last day remembering,

empty except for the memories I keep there, holding on,

so I rise and go, nothing to keep me here longer,

turning the lights off, one more time, the door

locking behind me, my own footprints echoing

in the empty halls, the click of my own heels leaving,

empty halls echoing a career come to an end.