your teacher

she is a walking
Webster's dictionary.

a human volume
of strunk and white.

she carries a ruler
to smack your knuckles

for misspelled words,
or grammar not quite right.

she's a teacher through
and through, with her glasses

and black sweaters,
long dresses, hair pulled

into a bun,
neat and tight.

you fear the wrath of her,
as you hunch over your desk

composing each new poem,
cowering in the dark of night.