for the first time in years
the weight of the school year’s end
feels more like a feather
than a thousand pounds
knowing i won’t see these students again
has little impact on my broken soul
as our summer dreams and summer lives
are burned by bad luck
what a failure this year has been
mismanaged, misled, misinformed
with their apathy leaking through
every crack in my broken lessons
yet i face bigger burdens
ones all too familiar, trying to tease
what’s left of my youth (and its salary)
right out from under me
and so the school year ends
with gray skies, sick kitties, flooded basements,
lost jobs, grieving husbands, debilitating surgeries,
disenfranchised daughters, and dreams lost.
maybe it’s more a bird than a feather,
this end-of-year weight,
this end-of-year wait,
this last chance to make things right.