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