catcher in the rye

"You know that song 'If a body catch a body comin' through the rye'? I'd like—"

"It's 'If a body meet a body coming through the rye'!" old Phoebe said.

 "It's a poem. By Robert Burns."

"I know it's a poem by Robert Burns."

She was right, though. It is "If a body meet a body coming through the rye."

 I didn't know it then, though.

"I thought it was 'If a body catch a body,'" I said.

 "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game 

in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around—

 nobody big, I mean— except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.

 What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—

 I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going

 I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. 

That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye 

and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing

 I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy." 

~ JD Salinger

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