A Soldier's Thoughts: Before Breakfast

You weren't the first,
God knows you weren't the last

Of all the others,
Your mark stays with me

It was the shot,
I never should've taken

And every morning since,
It's your eyes I see

The death of you,
Had become the life of me.

                                               ~Sean Barnett

in more than soil more than sky

This poem was written by a former (math) student of mine.  I knew when I taught him that he had served our country, but I didn't know until later that he was a poet.  I first came across this poem years ago, and it blew me away - still does every time I read it.  I recently shared this poem with a friend, and when she responded with, "Wow, that's gripping," I replied, "Isn't it?!  It knocks me off my feet every time I come across it, and it reminds me what a privilege it is to teach.  He sat and learned math from me, but he knows so much that I do not and that I never will  .  .  ."