Math Teacher

The magic of numbers, the abstractions
Lowest Common Multiples, the Greatest Common Factors and reasoning
You say, “I will ask a question before you kick the ball up;
Answer me as it bumps back on the ground.”
I wondered how, but I tried.
Came up with answers
With some hits and some misses.
And, in between the bounces of the ball
I learnt to dream a middle-class dream
Never to think,
The moon over my head is beyond my reach.

All these years
You are in mind
With numbers and neurons.

I learnt,
In this mist of coronavirus ball
You are gone.
I did not know how to react;
No tears, but within
An eerie silence and an uncanny heft.

Last time we met
A few years back
After the funeral of my mother,
You patted my back and wondered,
Whether I remember the little game that we played
Between football shots!
I smiled and said,
“The mental math, you mean.
Helped me to be where I am today.”