Day 4: Poetry a Day Challenge

Day 4: Poetry a Day Challenge - Big Ears

A student asked me where the stories come from

to fill up my blank sheets of paper on the Elmo

as they furiously try and make their 5-minute daily writing

word count.

I write, you write. Five minutes of furious drafting times three classes a day.

I’ve been doing this for 20 years.

I’ve put in my 10,000 hours of writing on blank sheets of paper.

Making something out of nothing.

But really, it’s because I’ve always had big ears.

The kind that stick out when I try to make my hair

lie flat against my face,

the kind that pop out from under the edge of the hat.

Big ears to sit silent under the breakfast table

until everyone forgets I’m there

and then the stories come

they always come

if I wait long enough

and stick my big ears up into the sky

like an antenna

they always come.

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