Things Come to a Head

Teacher canes student for calling him a rude name.
The New Straits Times, June 25, 2019

(i)

Who did he hit?
Who did he hear?

Those words flung at him
on that fateful day
The constant ridicule
from peers and strangers
Their mocking and leering looks
shaming him.

As he raised his hands
and struck her repeatedly
who did he see
receiving blow after blow.

This outburst of rage
once contained in the demure
of a necktie collared persona
now all restraints lost
a cry for help.

(ii)

It’s not as if
I made up that name for him
It’s not as if
I was the first to call him that
It’s not as if
the others had not called him that
It’s not as if
he’s not heard it before.

Maybe the others
had said it in whispers
Maybe the others
had said it behind his back
Maybe he didn’t want to hear it
said to his face.

I had thought
he’s heard it all his life
I had thought
he’d grown deaf to it
I had thought
he’s heard worse names
I had my thought
my saying it would mean nothing to him.

Yet on that fateful day
I uttered the words
he had heard hurled at him
so many, many times before
something in him snapped.

The cane came out
and a rain of strokes
hit me.
I stood there receiving the blows
for all who had called him
that name
for all his life.