Remembering school

My new job is pulling up every memory I have of elementary school, particularly the earlier years.  A few years ago I wrote a poem about the Kindergarten memory I will never forget.  I thought, today, I would post it.  I think I might also write a letter to my first grade teacher.

Something I Remembered Today
October 20, 2009
revised October 28, 2009

We gathered on the carpet every day
to watch her read, or was it twice a week
(for how should I recall such old details?)
and cross-legged we sat enwrapped in awe
of words that painted worlds for little brains.
We whispered of the pictures we’d create
and watercolor with our fingertips.
Except that one day when the wall rang.
And when she picked the phone up off the hook
she wept at what came from the other end.
We sat so still with nothing much to say—
for we were only five.

Turns out you died.
But I don’t recall your name
and I can’t call back your face
and I can see you in our class photo
but can’t point out which boy is you.
Cause what can we remember in the year
when we were five?

Except for this—my Kindergarten memory.