Shy

I am fiftyish
Teaching history
At evening classes
Asking my students
To stand at podium in
Front of the class to give
A three-minute talk on their
Assigned topic and some are
Too shy to speak but I coax them
To the podium stand by them then
Point my outstretched hand from
One side of the room to the
Other side as I tell the
Shy speaker to say
Aloud in the
Command
Voice
“These
People mean
Nothing to me!”
The class explodes
In laughter and the shy
Speaker mumbles aloud
The mantra and I urge them
To say their first line aloud then
The second stopping at each
Paragraph to wave their arm
From one side of the room
To the other silently
Saying their
Mantra,
These people
Mean nothing to me.
Some giggle some laugh
And the class loves the honesty.
And that is how you get a shy
Student to speak to a
Group and prepare
To earn a better
Salary in
Life.
I do not
Think it is
Applicable
To a ménage
A trois but
Truth is
Awesome.