found · folded inside a notebook on the writing desk
teacher —
i did the thing the way you showed me. it did not come out as it did for you. i think this is because i was hurrying, and because it was the second time, which is always worse than the first.
the watch you gave me runs slow. i have learned that this is intentional. i forgive you only on tuesdays.
i have a student now. she asks the questions i used to ask; i answer them with your silences. i hope this is permitted. i hope it is, in some smaller way, a thank-you.
with respect,
— your apprentice
from someone you taught: who learned the wrong things and the right things in roughly equal measure, and is now, against expectation, teaching.