One day my student is crying

            she has been listening to a song

 

it’s so powerful     just    so powerful

            coughing through her tears    blessedly

 

unembarrassed    occasionally hiccuping

            her face swollen    I do not ask what

 

has filled her to the brim today

            whatever song it is has gotten between her

 

and the world enough to pry the lid

            off something wordless    she sits

 

on the floor and I do not tell her art

            will be there for her all her life    I do not know

 

if she sees her life is made of doors    music perhaps

            through most of them    you know how it is I hope:

 

you’re in the middle of your life and then  

            gong!   suddenly some music   a poem  

 

and then the crying that begins is like a belch at first

            and you listen    astonishing    and long

 

and it calls forth such sounds from you that you remember

            my god    you’re alive    and there is such a thing as song