Only a few red and yellow 
patches of leaves --
faintest edge 

of cold coming through;
summer wearing out 

like a pair of old jeans ? 
hiss of school bus braking.

You’re both in college now, 
and school is long ago for me.

But isn’t there always 
the circling back ?

more than remembering, 
I can almost see

the flat- ended yellow pencils 
ready to be sharpened,

stiff loops of laces 
on brand- new shoes, 

faces of classmates, 
changed, slightly unfamiliar 

after long, separate summers.

I remember feeling 
time fall back 
from the soft green blur
of summer into a circle 

on the black- rimmed clock 
with its jumpy red minute hand

on the wall above 
our classroom door.


From Second Skin (Wind Publications, November 2010)
Used with the author’s permission.