Retirement
—For Doug and Sari
In the bad old days it was bad in another way:
Children climbed ladders in the dark
At a priest’s word, or sat
When they were told, maybe one book
went around
Bunyon—What God says is best,
is best, though all the men in the world
are against it.” In the bad old days
no one breathed without permission.
A girl who couldn’t speak
and a boy gone blind
read nothing—their lives blanched
by the hands of clocks—
Who’d take the time?
Only the brave, averse
to the middle,
a mean average
would dare to teach.
One sees
how bold that was—
calling for tomorrow
when there were defeats
to remember.
Stirring this very night
freed from final ends
we once called school
are all the little “yeses”.
Planet of the Blind 