As the new year’s evening class <br />filed in, in varying displays of enthusiasm or cool, <br />discreetly summing up their tutor <br />you couldn’t help but notice them <br />despite their modest manner – <br />of equal height, and that a little under average <br /> <br />couples attending class together <br />always catch my too premature thoughts – <br />has he brought her? has she brought him? <br />is this just a stage in careful courtship, <br />attending a class together? <br />where will they sit? couples tend to choose <br />the front row or the back, I’ve noticed; <br />often arrive at ease, as if they’ve met up after work, <br />taken a coffee or a light snack… <br />which will ask a question first? and when they do, <br />will some slight frisson of emotional thought-wave <br />pass between them? suppose after the first term, <br />one leaves, one stays – will the one who stays, feel freer <br />to ask more questions? or will I sense <br />that invisible tug of apron-strings…? <br /> <br />over the weeks, although they gave no overt sign of it, <br />they became a sweet, still place in the class, <br />a perfect balance between individuality and togetherness; <br />when he or she asked a question or gave an answer, <br />the other radiated almost imperceptibly <br />a quiet pride so pure that it was more, delight, <br />as one might do with a son or daughter. <br /> <br />At the end of the year, our paths went their separate ways; <br />and yet, after so many years, so many classes, so many students, <br />they’ve left a quiet place in my memory; <br />of humble simplicity, strength clothed as modesty, <br />boundless possibility – <br /> <br />they, the silent tutor; <br />I, the observing student.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-couple-in-the-evening-class/
