“Euphony”

By Thomas Page

I am student teaching a senior level class in Washington, DC. They have to write some poems on these prompts. I decided to try all 30 of them. However, I will not say what the prompt was but what it number was.

Prompt #19

The clatter of a thousand voices talking

At the same time

Fills the room lit by the winter light

Through a scrim’d window besides me.

A thousand side conversations that have nothing to do with the objective on the board

Or with the theme of the unit at hand.

Conversations about the weekend

Or the person sitting next to the speaker

Or the latest song on the radio

Or the coming of lunchtime

Or the unadulterated hatred of the assignment.

A thousand handrung bells at different tempos

Led by different conductors

Looking at their phones

Across the room.

The concert continues for a shade below an hour

Until the next showing begins in someone else’s room

To repeat their song elsewhere.