The Teacher Who Hated Me

I am now the age that you were then

and still

the flapping tails of your blue labcoat

and the jolly face you turned to others

taunt from the formalin haze 

of oneiric halls and stairwells

whose image did I conjure in you

a favoured or wayward sister

whose life and deeds eclipsed your own

I was a silent repository

for your frustrations

no haruspex, how could I divine

that the frog's life I dismantled deftly

would fail to please

and no objective measure 

of my multiple choices 

would bring anything but scorn

the final project that sealed my fate

a history of mythological creatures 

drew a damning D of disapproval

a shameful stain 

my mirrored face hurled back at me

this is a Canopic jar

for the remains of a memory of failure

and I am taking you apart

organ by organ to put you in it

stoppered for eternity

your heart and its workings

have been weighed

and judged heavier than a feather

let the gryphons and chimeras

have their way