OCR Text |
Show Voice for the Midwest Winter Then look around you in this place. Look at the beaten, smiling faces of the boys who live around you. See their constant smiles go wide, wider with each twisted order. Hear them mouth, "Sir, yes sir, yes mam." See how they grin, and never frown. Three times each day their faces fall toward the numbered plates that sit before them on the iron tables. Their faces hang above the plates, the smiles go dull. What, is it prayer? And Zeber says, "Boys this is to teach us order." And his voice says, "Boys, this is to teach us not to fail." And you know already failure stings like dog bite. You know already failure is a fall from prayer. But already you have learned the aching sweetness that it lures. Grubby little half-deaf Lunsball, throat knotted as the switch descends, it's not for failure, it is for trust. |