Swirling Away in Blue

This poem was inspired by Twyla M. Hansen's "Between Birds."  The first line is hers, and the title and ending are also from her poem.

Swirling Away in Blue

At first you don't notice they're gone
the school year ends in a flurry
of paperwork and storing and trashing.

But little by little, they sift back
in a variety of ways. Their faces
in a photo or on a video they left you,

A poem once written for an assignment
saved and found again. Their names
pop up on Facebook wanting to friend you.

A lesson arises from a search or in the
files, and you recall a presentation;
the super creative Utopian community,

The girl who composed music for her violin,
the inside jokes some classes attain,
this tribalism welcoming and inclusive.

And then one unexpectedly dies and you
begin to see him everywhere -- in other
students, or in a character on television.

And you have that envelope, that memory
of his words in front of you. He couldn't
have grown without you, he says.

And you wonder if that's true, even as
you want to believe. It all happens so fast.
We give our best every day, then it
swirls away in blue.