The Violin Teacher

(Daphne Hughes)

The beauty of her work is in the sounds and sights

and hearts of them: little people with fiddles.

Everything is violins: the music and the children’s grins—

Heaven is the way it was portrayed in good cartoons—

the innocence and comedy, the comfort and accomplishment,

The praise! The praise

reflected in their drinking eyes and burnished egos:

Glad she gave them audience and recognized their genius,

glad for her temerity, in the face of their magnificence,

to offer wild suggestions how they might yet get better.