Darren Stein

Darren Stein is an Australian poet and teaches English and the vicissitudes of life at St Ives High School in Sydney. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including Poetica, Metaphor, Words Apart, Quail Bell, and Twelve Winters Press. His second anthology, The Nut House Poems, was recently release by Red Dashboard Publications.

Mountaineers

It takes a certain type of hero to scale a mountain feature,

But none of these are ere’ as bold as your average high school teacher.

Keep your Everest, Mont Blanc and Alps, they’re merely there for larking,

For none who dare have climbed so high as a teacher’s pile of marking.

A Teacher’s True Confession

I must pretend that I know what I am doing;

When I stand before a class,

When I cover my arse

Trying to sound convincing that I have given

them enough skills and information to pass.

I kid them into thinking that I can help them

write the perfect essay –

-adopt that perfect phrase.

Make general points and edits with just the

right amount of praise.

When they fail, it’s all their fault,

they did not apply themselves enough.

When they succeed, it’s thanks to me,

and all my knowledge…and stuff.

The Smiling Assassin

Miss Smith seems gentle, meek and mild;

Miss Smith will coddle our “sweet” child,

When school day ends to take his leaving,

He’ll know that looks can be deceiving.