Students who are labelled as low attaining in mathematics are often seen as a homogeneous group and as such can be assigned learning attributes by others that observe their identity work in the classroom. Rachel Helme argues that by giving attention to an otherwise marginalised voice, it may be possible to challenge the discourse of deficiency, and influence the teaching and learning experiences of students who are labelled as low attaining. In this article Helme reflects on the use of poetic structures to analyse the narrative of Darren, one of a class of students labelled as low attaining. From her observations, it was evident that Darren had difficulties related to showing written workings out when attempting class work, and this was being positioned by his teacher as due to lack of effort. Darren was subsequently interviewed to listen to his experiences of learning mathematics and for his interpretation around the difficulties he presented. In the process of analysis, Helme used the poetic structure of an "I" poem within the Listening Guide method (Gilligan, Spencer, Weinberg & Bertsch, 2006) to enable her to focus on the intertwining of the hitherto unheard coexisting voices of the student. Her analysis seemed to illuminate a narrative that challenged the teacher's positioning of this student, however, the two voices that were exposed seemed to be in juxtaposition. The contribution of this article is to introduce, into the methodology of the Listening Guide, the novel poetic structure of a "they" poem, found in the narrative of the teacher talking about this student, as a contextual foil.