Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Teacher
(With Apologies to Wallace Stevens’ Blackbird) |
| |
| I |
| Among twenty nervous students, |
| The only moving thing |
| Was the mouth of the teacher. |
| |
| II |
| I was of three minds, |
| Like a student |
| In a room with three teachers. |
| |
| III |
| The teacher whirled with his chalk in hand. |
| He dashed off huge assignments on the board. |
| |
| IV |
| A chalk and a blackboard |
| Are dull. |
| A chalk and a blackboard and a teacher |
| Are dull. |
| |
| V |
| I do not know which to prefer, |
| The beauty of insipidness |
| Or the beauty of inanities, |
| The teacher teaching |
| Or just after. |
| |
| VI |
| Exams filled our whole classroom |
| With trepidation. |
| The shadow of the teacher |
| Passed us, back and forth. |
| How crude |
Calling our teeny brains |
An indecipherable cause. |
| |
| VII |
| O wise man who’s had it, |
| Why do you imagine we are bright? |
| Do you not see how you teachers |
| Expect far too much |
| From the students around you? |
| |
| VIII |
| I know little today |
| And tomorrow, much less than yesterday; |
| But I know, too, |
| That the teacher wants to know |
| Just what I know. |
| |
| IX |
| When the teacher left the classroom, |
| It marked the time |
| We jumped up and had some fun. |
| |
| X |
| At the sight of teachers |
| Begging for their paychecks, |
| Even the dullest of students |
| Would cackle with glee. |
| |
| XI |
| He strode over the whole classroom |
| In a fevered state. |
| Nonce, this fear shook him, |
| In that he beheld |
| A vision of us ending up |
| As teachers. |
| |
| XII |
| The clock is moving. |
| The teacher must be finished. |
| |
| XIII |
| It was a dark and stormy day |
| We had all failed |
| And we’re coming back next year. |
| The teacher sat |
| At his desk crying. |
| |
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| (Copyright © 2000) |
