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Empty classrooms
echo sights and sounds
of children.
Each knickknack evokes
a memory of a child.
I move desks to their places,
reconnect computer cables,
staple border on bulletin boards,
roll out the rug,
dust shelves,
arrange books,
and wonder who
the first bell will bring.
Tall pencils in a jar,
blank notebooks in the cubbies,
sticker charts wait.
Empty classrooms
invite, inspire, invoke
a spirit of expectedness,
elasticity to expand
for new voices, new hearts,
new children to embrace.
Reflections on the Teche 