11 August 2006 | Vol. 6, No. 2

Just Curious

by JAMES C. HENDERSON

Reading a book on amphibians

at the local elementary school,

the girl whom I'm tutoring,

a third-grader with cornrows in her hair

and skin the color of walnut, asks me:

"Is it true that men always want

to know what women are thinking?"

She's already pointed out the mole on my cheek

and asked me how I shave around it.

I reply, referring once more to our book:

"Isn't it fascinating that a frog breathes air,

but spends the winter

buried in the mud at the bottom of a lake?"

She just stares at me with brown eyes.

"Do women always want to know

what men are thinking?" I ask.

She looks at the painting in our book

of the frog sleeping in his burrow

curled up at the bottom of a frozen lake.

"No," she says. "It must be boring."