Michael Cluff- A Poem

Untitled

To construct bridges
across the deep pits
of ink and ignorance,
Professor Graham Stripling
was not the best
lantern in the intellectual darkness
to achieve this.

He had never overcome
the razors that lightning-flash
emotions and knuckles
had placed into  his discretion
and disposition.

He only wore
tie-nooses around his neck
binding stiff belts
and wincing heavy wingtips
to keep himself disciplined
in a doctrine
that his draconian-driven
father forced
into the pre-schooler's childhood fissures
reinforced by fulsome fears
and which Graham would not question....

just like his students are compelled
by him to always
unflinchingly do.