Yesterday, Our Old School Burnt Down

[ellajam]

Hi, g, plenty to like here, I found it moving but a little cluttered. Some notes are below.

Yesterday, I thought of her
And the lifeless rock it woke and heard
And every line and every word
was: “I once knew her”.
These first lines just confuse me, I don't think I would miss them if your poem started below, dropping the initial "but".

But we never read in text-books
how well we’d leave behind,
the silent promises we spoke blind
When we were laughing hard and grasping hands
to dance with crowds to decent bands.
Back then I’d use a phone to talk to God
and she could flash the firing squad.
For me the first 5 lines would be a fabulous run-on sentence if you lost the comma (which would make it the promises that were left behind) and went lower case with the When. You might consider changing decent to local, which would fitter the patter.
I enjoy lines 6&7 for the glory and guts.

Today she’s inches from my feet.
I should run back years and we'd meet
again, but this time I’d be different,
so I’d never write about time spent
thinking of just how we knew each other.
I like L1, "should run back years" breaks the meter. I'm not sure you need these 4 lines. I might prefer L1 to replace "Yesterday, I thought of her" below.

Yesterday, I thought of her.
And the weeping willow moved with thought.
And the flightless bird it sang the thought.
And the fish looked through the water-sky
To say to the sun: “I knew her”.
I think you've lost the ease of the words with the repeats. The thought is her, so
"Yesterday, I thought of her.
The weeping willow moved with her;
the flightless bird, it sang to her.
The fish looked through the water-sky
and told the sun: "I knew her".
This not a re-write, just one example of how you might edit to give you an idea what for me would be more effective.