Contempt spills from his chapped lips
Like bile
As he speaks,
And we, his students, shrink in fear,
Scrambling to conceal our own budding opinions
And convictions
Behind a facade of corresponding arrogance.
In tremulous voices we offer
Tentative derision
For politicians, god, football,
Unwilling to commit
Lest our scorn be misplaced;
For in his classroom,
Pinned beneath the yellowing fluorescent lights,
To stumble, falter, fail to criticize on cue
Is to bare your neck beneath the sharpened curve
Of his one, raised eyebrow,
Your cheeks burned red
By the vitriol he spews.