Invocation Before a Day of Teaching

Janus, god of thresholds, passageways,

watch over me today. Grant them 

your two masks: one looking back – 

a green confidence, salad days; 

the other forward – a god-

scripted series of demons to slay. 

Let the enemy on this warring field, 

(this chalky classroom space) hear this, 

my summoning, a call before the siege: 

We are not here (this hushed November day)

to take guild-crafted friezes, temples, city 

walls; not to make bards sing. Only to pass

through an open gate; fling, like a skipping stone 

across a mirror-glass lake, sediment from this edge 

toward a distant base; relish the rhythmic hop 

across; watch and reflect on the ripples it makes.