Now the classroom is quiet, but who will confess
is it true you betrayed us? the answer is yes
then read me the list of the crimes that are mine
I will ask for the mercy that you love to decline
And all the tenured go moist, and the dean has no choice,
A TA must die for the lie in his voice.
And I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty,
You keepers of truth, you guardians of beauty.
Your vision is right, my vision is wrong,
I’m sorry for smudging the air with my tongue.
Oh, the book it is thick, my defences are hid
In the pages of a classic, I would like to forgive,
In the rings of its words, in the hinge of its lines,
Where I have to go begging in beauty’s disguise.
Oh goodnight, goodnight, my night after night,
My night after night, after night, after night, after night, after night.
I am so poor that I listen to you,
Your six-digit earnings, they do that to you.
It’s their ways to detain, their ways to disgrace,
Their knee in your balls and their fist in your face.
Yes and long live the school by whoever its made,
Sir, I didn’t see nothing, I was just working home late.
- New Slave for Old Ceremony (#7)
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