Before I retired ...

I had a reason to get up, put on a tie, and go to work,

arriving early, staying late, and filling the in-between

with the energy of students eager to be gone from there,

off on their own, not bound by chalkboards and desks

in neat little rows or homework and tests and assessments,

the world reduced to bubbled answers;

for they know all there is to know about life and living,

believe they do, and perhaps they do, yet know

so much as to be confused, unsure in their surety,

and afraid.

And what can I teach them,

arriving early, staying late, but to be afraid,

to be unsure, to find the answers in all they know,

—- and perhaps in what they don’t —-

to trust themselves, believing, and the future,

directing their energy unbounded by walls for good,

and to remind them they will be tested and assessed

daily in a world that is now their own,

passing it on, as I have, before I retired,

a reason to get up, put on a tie, and go to work.