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Monhegan's Schoolteacher, 2004 by Jamie Wyeth |
sometimes I forget myself
the shock you feel looking at me reading,
on that bed, naked, while I dry my hair--
only increases my resilience
I thrive in the words of that book
which has taken me to a world filled with infidels
who bomb the city at their whim.
I struggle to understand their promise
to something beyond humanity.
a land which is not ours any more
yet a shelter for a shortwhile
until I harden myself and go out
to be shipped to an unknown place
where I will lie down spent bereft of my books
"wake up, all of you, before twilight strikes
and we all disappear into the night of ignorance"