Those Teachers

Teachers who want to help you by making all the decisions for you. In a series called "Notes on Childhood"

They see your potential

They think that because you ask so many questions you seek their answer.

They think that you are black and beautiful and you could go far,

and that if you will go far they would like you to go in their direction…

So that one day they can say,

“Yes, it was I who sent her in that direction. I who led her down the path. It was I who was there at the beginning and helped her to live my legacy.”

 

They want you to do what they want to do.

They want you to be their child.

They want you to do what they did,

so they can see it again.

They want to live once in their bodies and once in your fresh beautiful blood.

 

They don’t see you

and they see you.

 

They are your teachers, your role models, your friends.

They are the geniuses you read from before you knew that people with spouses and friends sit there and write the books.

They are the person who gives you an A,

or a B.

They are the person that looks at you with twinkling eyes and speaks your name in front of the crowd,

or doesn’t.

They are the person that you love, and who thinks they love you.

 

But they do not ask you the questions.

They do not listen and ask and listen again-

for that is the student's job.

They do not give feedback without mingled suggestions.

They do not give you the book of their life and present it pure, without ego.

They want you to do what they want to do. 

These are teachers who want to help you by making all the decisions for you.

Author's Note

As I run down the first meters of my adulthood, I have a much clearer view on the path behind the curve, on the steps I've already tread. "Notes of Childhood" will be a series of stories and perspectives on my childhood. Some, realization and advice-driven. Others, memorial and exploratory.