Reflection

No, I can’t say that anything I’ve done has saved people’s lives,
but I have taught many children to read and write—or at least read
and write better, and I’ve made people sing and dance while playing
my conga drums, and I remember one time while on the way to my
classroom I taught a little girl on the playground how to hold a basketball
correctly and shoot it toward the basket, and when she finally made one
she jumped up and down because it was the first basket she’d ever made,
and thinking about her from time to time makes me feel joyful, sometimes
even better than remembering that I taught elementary school for thirty years
and that some of my former students have said that I was their favorite teacher.
And though the good feelings never last, at least I’ve done a few good things...

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Jeffrey Zable is a teacher and conga drummer who plays Afro Cuban Folkloric music for dance classes and Rumbas around the San Francisco Bay Area. His poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and anthologies. Recent writing in MockingHeart Review, Remington Review, Ink In Thirds, Third Wednesday, Awkward Mermaid, Soft Cartel, The Bitchin' Kitch, Rosette Maleficarum, and many others. In 2017 he was nominated for The Best Of The Net and The Pushcart Prize.