Lost Life Lesson

The teacher wanted to ask the boy
Why it was the boy ran away.
The boy answered something that struck

A nerve with the teacher, so much
So that the teacher remembered it
For years, a couple of decades,

And tracked down the boy as an adult,
After the teacher had retired, or was
Contemplating retirement, to ask

The boy about his life since he’d come back
From running away, to see how he’d done,
And also to ask again about that answer,

But the thirty-something boy had no scrap
Of recollection what it was he’d said
As a teenager in excuse or explanation,

No idea why it had left his teacher impressed,
And although he’d done well enough,
Since then, or so one would guess, he felt

Bad for the old teacher after their follow-up
Conversation, since he could sense he hadn’t
Helped the old man, who had hung up

Sounding depressed.