Year after year
smiling faces under glass.
So many smiles only a whisper of memory:
oh yes. I remember that one
and that one
and that.
But so many others
slipped out of mind,
phantoms who haunted our rooms.
Are they still hovering ghosts
watching life happening around them
or are they finally
corporeal?
Shawn L. Bird 
Something to ponder. I like this.
Thanks. I appreciate you stopping by, and taking the time to comment.
Your words have me looking back at some of my former students . . . wondering now what I would see under the glass after all of these years.
Do you ever run into students who greet you by name, tell you they were in your class, and you have nothing in your memory? Usually, if there’s not a name, I can at least find the glimmer of location (“Oh! You sat in the back corner by the window, right?”) I am haunted by students who completely vanish from my consciousness. I find an old class list, and not a single name brings a face to mind. Is it just the natural culmination of 25+ years X 200 students a year? That’s 5000 faces. And yet… I feel like they should have left something with me, or at least, I should have taken something of them to hold.
Shawn, I have run into some former students whom I could not attach a name with the face. After teaching 40 years, I guess my memory bank is allowed a lapse once in awhile.
40!!!! Yikes!
Yup! Now I am retired and trying to remember what to do tomorrow. I admire you for your service to the profession.
Thanks. My husband retired this year from government service. He has been loving getting to work on a million projects of his own choosing.