Even at this late date, sometimes I have to look up
The word “receive.” I received his deep
And interested gaze

A bean plant flourishes under the rain of sweet words
Tell what you think—I’m listening

The story ruffled its twenty leaves

*

Once my teacher set me on a high stool
For laughing. She thought the eyes
Of my classmates would whittle me to size
But they said otherwise

We’d laugh too if we knew how

I pinned my gaze out the window
On a ripe line of sky
That’s where I was going