Ouido

If there's something you don't want to do, you find
a way to avoid it. My father, for instance bit the ear

of the man charged with taking him to school. Granted
he was only a boy; and it's mostly cartilage in the ear.

I envy his gumption, even that bit of originality— not
thumb or hand or arm but a leap up, closing in on the ear.

I imagine he ran away through the fields, laughing while
their househelp bellowed on the path, clutching his ear.

When they caught up with him, did he get an earful? 
Did someone drag him home, or to school, by the ear?

What I don't hear from the story he told, I fill in.
Then it's passed around, a little legend learned by ear.

Note that I don't say lie— think of the fleshy outer cup
and how it folds sound. Like jazz, I play ouido, or by ear.