C Chord
- 5 days ago
- 1 min read
By Shea Socrates
I ask the students to play a C chord,
and half of them play the C string.
"Who can tell me what a chord is?"
One says, "What you plug your phone into."
The others laugh when they see
the look on my face.
"That's a cord!"
"My friends," I say, "we call this a string."
One who isn't listening
later calls it a line,
as in a fishing line.
"Who can tell me what a chord is?"
They rub their hands together,
recalling the lesson on how the voice works.
My own voice
grumbling when I say, "No,
those are vocal cords—
but we actually call them vocal folds. Remember?"
"A chord is when we have three or more—"
a student interrupts with "Ukuleles!"
We laugh, all of us.
And in the sound—
the clatter of strings,
the tremble of laughter—
something almost right
hums through the room.
Shea Socrates (they/them) is a teacher and emerging writer. Their work has appeared in HAD, Passages North, and JAKE. They live in Detroit with their partner Felicia and three pets, Vashti, Coney, and Vern.
