Transcription:

The Opposites Game
For Patricia Maisch

This day, my students and I play "The Opposites Game" with a line from Emily Dickenson.

"My life had stood a loaded gun," it goes. And I write it on the board, pausing so they can call out the antonyms.

My?

Your

Life?

Death

Had Stood?

Will Sit

A?

Many

Loaded?

Empty

Gun?

Gun.

For a moment, very much like the one between lightning and its sound, the children just stare at me. And then it comes. A flurry. A hailstorm of answers.

"Flower!" says one.

"No, book!" says another.

"That's stupid!" cries a third. "The opposite of a gun is a pillow. Or maybe a hug. But not a book! No way is it a book."

With this, the others gather their thoughts and suddenly, it's a shouting match. No one can agree. For every student, there's a final answer.

"It's...a song. A prayer! I mean, a promise. Like, a wedding ring and later, a baby. Or—what's that person who delivers babies?"

A midwife?

"Yes! A midwife."

"No! That's wrong. You're so wrong you'll never be right again! It's a whisper. A star. It's saying "I love you" into your hand and then touching someone's ear."

"Are you crazy? Are you the president of Stupid-land? You should be. When's the election?"

"It's a teddy bear. A sword. A perfect, perfect peach."

"Go back to the first one! It's a flower. A white rose."

When the bell rings, I reach for an eraser, but a girl snatches it from my hand.

"Nothing's decided!" she says. "We're not done here."

I leave all the answers on the board.

The next day, some of them have stopped talking to each other. They've taken sides. There's a flower club and a kitten club, and two boys calling themselves "The Snowballs". The rest have stuck with the original game, which was to try to write something like poetry.

It's a diamond

It's a dance

The opposite of a gun

Is a museum in France

It's the moon

It's a mirror

It's the sound of a bell

And the hearer

The arguing starts again, more shouting, and finally, a new club. For the first time, I dare to push them.

"Maybe all of you are right," I say. "Well, maybe. Maybe it's everything we said. Maybe it's everything we didn't say. It's words and the spaces for words."

They're looking at each other now.

"It's everything in this room and outside this room. And down the street and in the sky. It's everyone on campus and at the mall, and all the people waiting at the hospital. And at the post office. And yeah, it's a flower too. All the flowers. The whole garden.

The opposite of a gun is wherever you point it."

"Don't write that on the board," they say. "Just say poem."

Your death will sit through many empty poems.

- Brendon Constantine