Communion Poem by Percy Dovetonsils

Teaching, as you all know,
is the kind of communion
in which you,
the host,
serve yourself bodily
to your students.

If teacher is all you want to be
then fine and good.
You need have no regrets
about
offering yourself, like human pastry,
and watching yourself be devoured
till there’s not enough you left
to collect your lousy pension.

But imagine, for one nightmarish moment,
that you want to do something else
the whole time you’re being eaten
and you sense
you’ll never do it
because there won’t be so much
as a ribcage
remaining
to realize your ambitions.

See how it is?
You neither have your cake
nor eat it too.
You are their cake
and you are eaten
if teaching’s
not all
you
want to do.