“Again September”
for Kevin Horn
Again September arrives shedding
stubborn heat of a summer already
in our museum of memory. Again
we note darkness sneaking in earlier
and earlier, maybe we’re caught
by surprise as we were last year
and will be again next year. Strange
how each September seems a beginning
even as leaves die in shrouds of color,
the earth turning orange and red
after months of solitary green. Good
teachers consider the coming fall
a mystery to unfold with students
starting as strangers on a class list
but blooming into learners after weeks
turn to months in the enriching,
fulfilling, sometimes exasperating,
one of a kind story of a school year
that begins again in September.
published in The New Jersey Council of Teachers of English Journal