Music was only supposed to last
from 12:20 to one but
on St. Patrick’s Day Sister Judith
seemed radiant as star dust
so on we sang
holding the geography of Egypt
for another day. I remember
our forty-two faces lighting
with Sister’s love for the songs
of Ireland that afternoon. Egyptian
rivers had to wait while Vito
Carluzzi crooned, "When Irish
Eyes Are Smiling" and Stash
Jankowski belted "Me Father’s
Shillelagh." We just kept singing
and singing with the pyramids and
sphinxes growing one day older
for soon it was 1:30, then it was two
in a room filled with fifth graders
and a nun we loved, one
voice beautiful as prayer. And I,
like a lucky leprechaun, found
a pot of gold in the second row
where pretty Jane Ellen Hughes
sang "O Danny Boy" and I dreamed
in green she was really singing
"O Eddie Boy" as we walked hand
in hand along a Galway shore.
So, Sister Judith, lovely lady of God,
know that this boy in the back
remembers when we kept text books
closed to spend all afternoon in song
and that joy is an emerald river
flowing through my soul and all these years
later I need to thank you for everything
about Egypt we did not learn the day
you let the lesson plan go, one March 17th
when none of us could stop the music.

From Dream Teaching (Grayson Books, 2004).
First published in The Art of Music, Vol. 2 (Piano Press).
Used here with the author's permission.