TO MY TEACHER

[song]


When you are the curtain of night
or the red clay vessel of day

I love my teacher
I love my teacher I said

Bacchante mosquitoe
feasts on my blood

I love my teacher
I love my teacher I said

When a purple mound
of phosphorescing sage
beckons like a baptism
an aromatic bed

I love my teacher
I love my teacher I said

New rain sweeps
cricket voices up
and on a dry wind
they land again
chirping at our feet

I love my teacher
I love my teacher I said

Here in a cave
of immaculate dust
by a puddle of clay
pink hands swim up

I love my teacher
I love my teacher I said

I love my teacher
I love my teacher I said


-Timothy Shay 1995