Elementary School Pictures

I got a text message on my face book page,
“Hi, I’m Eddie, do you remember me?” is all it said.
Included was a picture of man with four young daughters
and a wife, a woman I’d never seen before.
All six were dressed in green, two days before St. Patrick’s day.
I looked through pictures posted on his home page
and there was a boy of seven I recognized, except his name was Paul,
long bangs covered his eyes and a crooked grin that looked like a boy I knew.

It has been thirty years, now he's thirty-seven and
all grown-up, do I remember him?
Yeah, he was the one in the back row, tall for his age.
I recall how he used to laugh when he spoke
like everything he said was suppose to be a joke.
School was okay but recess was his favorite time of day
and after thirty years it didn’t matter because he turned out okay.

Other teachers, other schools, some college and a few jobs
and today he can support his family.
Funny, how things seemed so important back then
the scores on his spelling test, completed homework,
his book report and did that red haired girl ever notice him?

Back then there were no fears of classroom break-ins
and crazed murders on campus, or inane scores from
standardized tests that threatened failure to leave him behind.
He turned out okay and as one of his teachers I’m happy for that.