|
Summer School
- for Gordon, with appreciation
1.
Next to our cottage is a tutoring camp;
My father taught there summers ago.
I walk along the lane behind the tents
They use for classrooms
And listen to the commingled voices
Of young teachers and their kids.
Much of it is new and strange, of course,
But some I recognize:
Third person plural, active voice. . .
What Gatsby really means . . .
And I am carried back to
Forty years in schools:
A mug of hot coffee
To place my hand around on cool mornings,
A smile for the 14-year-old,
Embarrassed at his mistake,
Wanting to try again.
2.
I came upon my father's grade book today,
On the cottage shelf
Where we put it when he died,
Now twenty years ago.
I wish that he'd retired
While his memories were all good ones.
I see him in his classroom by the pond,
Leaning forward, wanting to tell a boy or two,
Sullen, not unkind, needing credits,
About the Generation of '98,
But struggling with the preterite, I think.
Then the meaning comes to me:
A tutor is someone who keeps you safe.
Robert Demaree is a retired school administrator with ties to North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, where he lives five months of the year. He has published three collections of poems, including Fathers and Teachers, (April 2007, Beech River Books). He also has had over 300 poems published in 80 periodicals. (August 2008)