To Love & Be Loved

(after Raymond Carver)

For a whole year the master beat & taunted the

child with the lisp. He taunted & beat the child with

the lisp until the tears from the child’s eyes ran

together with the blood from the child’s nose,

dripping from his little chin, staining & crusting his

blazer & trousers so he carried the news of his

torture around for the the day like a cloak. The

Master beat the fatherless child until the child

pissed himself at the desk and had to sit snivelling

& humiliated in cold piss for yearhours til

hometime. He beat the weeping child until the

child developed a stutter to go with the lisp. Day

after day, week after week, month after month,

term after term, the master beat the child &

taunted him, taunted & beat the brotherless child

until 3rd class was up & the child limped out of that

abattoir of learnings, never to return, nor forget.

Yet, after many hard years & all but impossible

struggles this sisterless child grew up beloved to

love & be loved,

and the master didn’t.