I am reading Saint Friend by Carl Adamshick and discovered these words in the poem “Layover.”
Your whole body
is curled like an ear I wanted to talk
Into all evening.
I was thunderstruck.
Words sometimes strike me this way.
It’s one of the reasons I love to read and write.
I love this image of a person being curled like an ear.
As a teacher, I am curled like an ear.
My students want to talk with me.
I always have to be ready to listen.
I always have to be ready to hear.
When a student says, “Mr. Barton, my stomach hurts. I didn’t eat breakfast this morning,” while she is writing a paragraph in her journal, I have to listen carefully and respond, “Here, you can have my orange. I think that’ll help you feel better.”
It’s my way of being an ear.
It’s my way of showing I hear.
It’s my way of saying, “I’m here.”
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