I am a teacher without a story

By Ruth Vandenhautte

I am a teacher without a story
My characters have stepped off the page
And left me here alone
No more shuffle of reluctant feet
No more smiles at the door
No more stirring of metaphors
with scratchy pens
Or brief sideways glances
Or glimmers of recognition
No more excited raising of voices
Or chasing valour’s minion round the chairs
No more power, no more glory, no more triumph
No more human faces brave enough
To take on the whole world, and, when defeated,
Look up and try again.

Yes, I am a teacher without a story
And my heroes have slipped like genies
Into a sleek black box
Where each of them hang in solitary pairs of letters
Black like a computer
But not gone
Not truly gone
Just waiting.

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Written Word ‘Head’ poems