A Lifelong Lesson
I had always respected teachers,
until I began to fear them.
I was David without a catapult,
trembling before a great grizzly Goliath.
The banshee screeched, baring
rows and rows of serrated knives
that made the words cut so deeply.
I deserved to be punished,
to feel the full force of the hammer
slamming down on me,
to be marked with a scarlet letter.
I should not have done it.
The mantra of guilt resounded.
I should not have done it.
She made me feel like I had
sinned the worst sin ever known.
But I could not remember what I did.
I no longer had reason nor logic
It was as if I did not exist in that moment,
It was as if I did not do anything at all.
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