Issue 12
Rest
Joanna C. Eleftheriou
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Summer Still
"Good summer!"
"Goodbye!"
"'Bye, Miss Joanna!"
The last little student threw his bag onto his shoulder, knocked a
chair to the ground and rushed to join the stampede of children just set free.
Buses and mothers took them all home. I shut the door, slumped into a chair
and surveyed my classroom. Torn posters, written-on chairs, gum under the
desks and bent blinds bore the imprint of ten months of rowdy students --
over now. Even the clock wanted to relish our long-awaited rest -- it had
stopped ticking, battery gone dead or swiped, perhaps, by a mischievous kid.
An unexpected little heaven, that classroom void of voices. My throat
rejoiced at all the discipline it wouldn't have to enforce with yells and
pleas and threats. The pointer I called for attention with looked
relieved at its prospect of a holiday. Guilty smiles and delighted ones,
roguish grins and shy ones, reappeared in my mind: forty students' faces went
on shouting and teasing and calling out answers without raising their
hands but now, that assault of sounds had lost its power -- soon those images,
too, dissipated, leaving me to stare at the stopped clock. Motionless and
calm. Ten months' pressure lifted. Gone.
~Joanna C. Eleftheriou
Joanna C. Eleftheriou writes and teaches in Limassol, Cyprus. She's
grateful to all those who encouraged her toward this first publication. Email.
© 2003 by Joanna C. Eleftheriou. All Rights Reserved.
© Copyright 2003 by Cayuse Press. All Rights Reserved.