Julia Alvarez
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
She tells me to make sure the line does not move up over the threshold.
That would be dangerous.
So I stand guard at the door.
Somehow it happens the way things seem to happen when we're not really looking, or we are looking, just not the right way.
Kids crush up like cattle, pushing me over the line.
Judy is not a good leader, is all Mrs. Lawrence says.
She says it quietly.
Still, everybody hears.
Her arms hang down like sausages.
I hear her every time I fail.
It's just a poem that's full of little surprises.
You sort of
Only till the last stanza do you see that last bit coming.
It has a fond kind of tone.
It's got a kind of clarity and a generosity.
And, oh my, the accuracy of details.
You just know this kid was there.
I don't buy that that seems to happen when we're not looking.
It seems really looking.