Under the Sign of the Scorpion

Under the Sign of the Scorpion

A teacher in Rimbaud’s third year of school, M. Pérette, remarked,Intelligent, as much as you want, but he has eyes and a smile that I do not like. He will come to a bad end. In any case, nothing banal will germinate in that head. He will be the genius for good or evil!

 

Our teachers have us pegged.  They know if we

Are geniuses as bright as summer suns

On hot horizons.  Teachers can foresee

Our futures, dimly at least, brilliant ones

As stunning in the classroom as a star

In supernova mode across the deep

Of Artic midnight dark and search afar:

They peer through that paradoxical sleep

Of young male minds so filled with undreamed dreams,

Awake while baffled by unknowingness.

These teachers ascertain what only seems

To others, glimmers of that glowing mess,

Those forming galaxies, constellations,

And clusters in unconscious gyrations.