Teachers

               They know –

as far as appearances go,

they have collectively accumulated enough knowledge

                         to ground the entirety of a metropolis

firmly on useful education’s wear-worn shoulders.

                                And yet, they are specters - shadows

that haunt us every fairly late night

and unwanted, glaring morning,

five days (or six!) a week.

               Enough sheets of paper to cover

       whole mountain ranges and lay them to rest,

carpal tunnels that span the width of the entire U.S.,

hours that drain them ‘til every last drop

is gone – and the only thing we can be

bothered to do for them is… nothing.

We’ve come to see them as footnotes

rather than chapters in our lives;

             rather than guidelines to lead us

                                 to fly, we delegate them

to rungs on a foot ladder.

Even as we acknowledge them in earnest,

we soonest forget as we burn hours by furnace

to build from the ground up our so-called legacy.

                                But we owe our capability to them – in fact,

we owe far more than just

               what we can do every nine-to-five.

We owe them, without exaggeration, our lives.

Yet they have never murmured,

        they already know.

After all, they are our teachers,

our professors, our mentors.

And as far as appearances go,

     they have a whole lot more

                                     to show the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For our dearly beloved teachers, both in our personal lives, and the lives of those around us.

Cheers!