To A Teacher

Hurt once and for all into silence A long pain ending without a song to prove it Who could stand beside you so close to Eden When you glinted in every eye the held-high razor, shivering every ram and son? And now the silent loony bin, where The shadows live in the rafters like Day-weary bats Until the turning mind, a radar signal Lures them to exaggerate Mountain-size on the white stone wall Your tiny limp How can I leave you in such a house? Are there no more saints and wizards To praise their ways with pupils No more evil to stun with the slap Of a wet red tongue? Did you confuse the Messiah in a mirror And rest because he had finally come? Let me cry Help beside you, Teacher I have entered under this dark roof As fearlessly as an honoured son Enters his father's house