A Good Teacher Never Quits

A good teacher never quits.

That Is Who I Thought You Were

Tell me please
Why are you not speaking?
When we stood together
In our bloodied land
You raised your voice
And stood beside me.
Now I wait
And wait
For you to say
One word.
They tell me it is because
You are afraid.
They say it is because
You have investments there.
They say it is because you did not believe
Me when I brought word to you;
And now you do not believe
Your own eyes.
You disappoint me
To the point of tears.
You were a kind of hope
In a land without much
Hope.
You were a voice
In a land where people ate ice cream
And went to the mall
Happily
In The Silence.
I could trust you
I thought
To raise that impassioned
Voice
Of yours
That cut through the sticky sweetness
Of the phony life
Like broken stone.
What is going on here? You would
Say. Or, No, that can’t be right.
Or, What? No. Let’s look again.
Or, Of course, it must be stopped.
That is who I thought you were.
But you are not.