McGinnis Counseling

Learning To Talk To Each Other

We set the alarm for six a.m.

sitting up in bed to practice while it’s still dark;

we keep our voices low,

our words halting at first:

“I notice,” “I assume this means,”

“I hurt,” “I regret,” “I hope,”

“I realize,” “I appreciate-”

and the one who has been listening says,

“This is what I hear,”

and the one who was speaking

the one who sent the impossibly vibrant and graceful

kite covered with words,

pulls down on the string,

bringing the kite back to ground, sighs and says,

“Yes, that is what I said,”

and the one who was listener begins speaking,

and the other murmurs, “I hear you

with my eyes and my arms,

and this is what I think

you have been trying to tell me…”