To a Teacher Leonard Cohen

Hurt once and for all into silence
A long pain ending without a song to prove it

Who could stand beside you so close to Eden
When you glinted in every eye the held-high razor
Shivering every ram and son?

Now, silent looney-bin
Where the shadows live in the rafters like day-weary bats
Until the turning mind, a radar signal
Lures them to exaggerate mountain-size on the white stone wall
Your tiny limp

How can I leave you in such a house?
Are there no more saints and wizards
To praise their ways with pupils
No more evil to stun with the slap of a wet red tongue?

Did you confuse the Messiah in a mirror
And rest because he had finally come?

Let me cry help beside you, teacher
I have entered under this dark roof
As fearlessly as an honoured son enters his father's house