I was in the third grade
a very self conscience girl
My teacher was Miss Patty
A plump woman not much taller than I
To me she was old, but now I realize that she was only
in her mid twenties or so
She dressed in the style of the day, the fifties,
Dresses that buttoned down the front with a thin black belt
When she called me to her desk
somehow she would wind up with her arm my around my waist
Her hands were very small, pink and so soft
When we came in from lunch she would sit at her desk
Take out a small bottle of Jergens lotion
She would rub it in her hand and around her wrist
I can smell Jergens lotion today and I remember her
She would then tell us to lay our heads down
on our desk and she would read us the best stories
Stories about people that lived all over the world
Some real and some fiction from others mind
From her I learned about a boy named David who
fought a great giant, Goliath, and won!
She told us that not matter how big the foe
if we were in the right to stand our ground
She made learning fun
She taught us to have confidence in ourselves
not to be afraid of the unknown
I saw her a few years ago at a department store
She hadn't changed much just gotten older looking
I went up to her and told her who I was and
thanked her for being the kind sweet teacher she was
she still smelled of Jergens lotion for that I was thankful