The Work of Her Hands for Mrs. Kastens

By James Fleet Underwood

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Recommended for you. $1.99. 

Kindle says Buy Now! 

I think Why not? 

and begin the electronic transaction, 

watch it download like 

a windblown face forming in sand. 

                           The Great Gatsby, 

haven’t read it for 40 years. 

It’s Mother’s Day in Thailand 

and I’m home from work for the day, 

zip through half the book by mid-afternoon. 

I think of my friend Nancy and send her a message: 

“Remember that literature course we took senior year at Lamphere? 

We read The Great Gatsby. Mrs. Kastens, the teacher? She was cool.” 

                          Just eighteen, 

a few weeks after my mom died, 

and I suppose there was a green light flashing 

somewhere across the bay of my own mind.

               I didn’t want to stare at it, 

let alone stay out all night.

Mrs. Kastens let me gab in class, 

hand always up, pages marked 

with matchbook covers, 

opinions about everything, 

                             motives, 

irony, tragedy, 

death.

She made of the classroom

              an open heart

where I could empty myself of grief.

“Mrs. Kastens was a great teacher,” Nancy says.

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James Fleet Underwood is a long-time teacher whose poems often arise from the classroom and the quiet, ordinary moments that shape a life in education. His work reflects on work, place, and the small gestures that connect people to each other and to their days. X: @jamesfleetpoems

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