Learning

(Inspired by a story told by Sue Bredenkamp)

“What happens to the sun at night?” asks the teacher.
A four-year-old, cross-legged on the carpet,
confidently explains, “It goes to New Jersey.”
The girl whose Mom has read her
books about everything
helpfully chirps,
“The earth tilts and you
can’t see it anymore.”
A boy with raised arm churning the air
counters,
“The sun breaks up
Into little pieces and fills the sky
with stars. It the morning
they come back together
and make another sun.”

Science and poetry
poised on the edge of cosmic battle,
until a smiling teacher
intervenes,
celebrates
children’s minds tilting
on their own axes.
“You are creators of stories,”
she tells them,
“to explain the world.
You carry on
an ancient tradition.”

On her way home, she ponders
if we could learn
to live this way:
Each in the darkness
Illuminating
one small stretch of sky,
and then together making
a brilliant, focused energy,
from all we’ve seen,
from all we’ve learned.