My task: to take the black felt erasers

outside and clap them together,

obliterating the carefully formed o's

and curly cues of l's and y's

in chalk clouds above my head,

leaving my braids

and the front of my jumper white

with math problems

and history lessons.

We dipped our pens in the inkwells

slowly curving

little cursive hills and valleys.

My desk was filled with carved initials.

In the corner, MK loved DS, embedded so deep

in the middle of a heart it seemed

love's survival was certain.

I longed to mark,"BK was here".

Remember me, four-year-old believer

in fairy tales. Remember

me in the cobwebs, in the school-bell

ringing its joy from the pull of a rope.

In the tall mustard

and rust of the swing-set.

—Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Vrenios' award winning chapbook, Special Delivery, was published in 2016.  She has poems published in various anthologies and journals including Stories of Music, Love Notes from Humanity, Poeming Pidgeon, Passager, NILVX, Unsplendid, and the American Journal of Poetry, and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  She is a Professor Emerita from American University, artistic director of the Redwoods Opera in Mendocino, California, a member of international Who’s Who of Musicians, and is past National President of the National Opera Association. She has spent much of her life  performing as a singing artist across Europe and the United States.