Miss Carrie Lewis,

teacher of music

for the fifth grade

at the Manassah E. Bradley School

in the "parochial"

(to put it mildly!)

East Boston of the late 1970s,

yours was the first face

of teacherly authority

that was black

(light brown, really)

and not white.

You live in my memory

as a graced and spirited soul,

dressed in flowing colourful dresses,

a secular counterpart

to the luminous Sister Thea Bowman,

whose songs I'd discover

more than twenty years later.

How beautiful you both were,

how my heart leaps even now

wanting (dare I say it?)

to dance with you both.