I’ve misplaced a piece of my heart–
It went missing one day in May
When I packed up my files,
Emptied my shelves, and
Turned in my key.

Is it still there in my classroom,
Lying among the dust bunnies,
Waiting there in the back of the closet?

Did it roll to the back of the drawer,
caught on that screw that snagged my pencils?
Or maybe it cracked and fell into a box of files
Still stored in the garage.

I didn’t feel the loss at first,
Busy with new adventures.
But now when summer wanes, a little ache appears.
School supplies fill the aisles of the stores,
But no extra folders, spirals, or pencils fill my basket.

No more early morning faculty meetings, I rejoice.
No more attendance to check,
No more progress reports or grades to average,
No more late nights spent reading essays.

But then my heart whispers,
What of those moments when magic happened?
When the reading became more than a chore,
When excited voices argued a point of view,
When eyes shone with understanding?

What of those lunchtime visits
for help understanding that cryptic passage,
Reworking those tricky paragraphs.
But not always about schoolwork–
sometimes just a listening ear.

Sometimes, my heart whispers
Yearning to fill that missing part
Where all those young lives lived each year.