I Long For All Of Them.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

I just had a chat with my teacher
in my primary grade, and she is 80 years old.
and what I cannot forget about her as my
science teacher was the iodine test, a test
for carbohydrate.
and then she told me that her other co-teachers,
my math teacher, english teacher, and social studies
teacher are still alive and that they meet once in
a while and enjoy each other's company.
Oh, they were really kind during those times,
maintaining a happy disposition and wore fashionable
clothes and jewelries, and never did they
scold us or inflict insults and pains,
and on their facebook pages they still look young.

and there is one teacher in music whom i too cannot
forget as i was her favorite, but she was too cruel
to the rest, beating them with sticks and pinching
their ears.

i learned that she died after she retired at 65.
She was strict but i really learned my music from her.
I could sing so well, and wrote her a song.

i taught once after my graduation in a science school
but quit after a while.

i studied law and then became a lawyer.
and in this lonely work, i long for all of them.