Before the Fall of Would-be Corpses

Numbers 35:33 KJV

Isaiah 47:11 KJV

An English lesson of the sort he gave

In ordinary secondary schools

Left students (and himself) not zinged — not grave

With stunning revelations.  Grammar rules

And Blake could be oppressive in those rooms.

A period came when he was not required

To teach.  He headed to the staffroom for

A break.  The TV screen showed towers fired

With suicide and murder, Muslim hate

And people killing selves and others, planes

Consumed by prophecy that some equate

With flaming truth that urges blood campaigns.

  He stood in stunned stupidity alone

    In breathlessness; thought, “Nothing can atone.”

©  Phillip Whidden