English Teacher

I am asked:
Q - “North or South Korea”?
A - “Oh, South Korea of course”
Q - “Aw” disappointedly would be a frequent response
“So, what did you do there?”
A - “I thought English”, sorry for being so ordinary
Q - “Aw” disappointedly would be a frequent response
Is it so ordinary, so normal, so predictable, so much like everything else that it deserves an unenthusiastic “aw” for an answer?
“So, what was it like?”
A - “Different” so different – different cannot explain it – It cannot describe the heat in the summer & the wind that slices in two in winter & the smell & the submission to the rotary motion of the city that swallows you up and leaves you floating around like a leaf in an ornamental pond sullying the perfection of the adjacent royalty watching & waiting for a gardener to come to scoop you out.
Q - “So, how long were you there?”
A - “Over three years” but it seemed like a whole new life & entirety of uncountable years where I was not me & me was a new person while time stood still for me to return & find that everything had moved on or grown & to my amazement so have I no longer the avoidable but the listenable opinionable believable wisdom toting figurine from far away far far away.
Q - “So, you must like it over there.”
A - “Yeah” but why should I like it, do you stay in a place for three years in a place only because “you like it” – there is more to it than that - it means more to me than just “like” and “dislike” – every tree must grow but some do not grow in certain forests the same can be said with fish the same with people: when they are lined in r2ows & clipped and trimmed like trees - do they ever grow like a wild tree free to fight its way out into its natural mould winning the sunlight it strives to survive with while drinking every drop of moisture it can squeeze from the soil that surrounds it without any mechanical allocation or rules that regard how much or how many one is allowed to take - wild seeds will always grow stronger & if they do not live they will die trying to do so.
Q - “So, what are you going to do now?”
A - “I don’t know” how to explain it to you but there is more to the world than being a part of the mosaic - being your own mosaic on your own wall for yourself only to look at with yourself only to please & to smile when you look at yourself & see your mosaic in your reflection & not waiting for you to work for five more years to achieve.
A - “So, I suppose you’ll be a teacher then”
Q - “Why?” would I be a teacher when there is nothing I know which wants to be learned & there is nothing that “must” be learned that I want to teach - if I stood on a hill all day & did nothing would I be called a “stander” or an “on a hiller”? Of what consequence is it what I do for you & for others? I will be myself until I die & then I will allow people to decide what I was but now I cannot say what I am I am only who I am not an object but a person who breathes & thinks & feels & eats & loves & dreams & dreams & dreams & loves some more & hopes never stops hoping that I will always be just me & nothing else.
A - “Because that’s what you do”
A - “I suppose” that is all I do - all I do forever Amen – from morning through to night I teach myself & no-one else what I can only be & how I can only see & what I can only do & where I can only be – teaching- teaching to learn to grow & see above hedges & climb fences - teacher & student - somnambulating into & out of existence within a cocoon persisting far & close to my presence standing next to you answering your questions with lies and screaming the truths at the backs of my eyes teaching myself that I will not create a perjury of my life.
A - “Sounds great”
A/Q - “It is” is it?

one day in some month this year