...frightening Year 12 English teacher declaiming, in her small chalky room at the top of the senior stairs. Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me / Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words . . . 'Poetry consoles,' she'd told them and she'd been wrong, because the lines slid through him like...

...new crisis. From the Shakespeare by the bed, I read: 272 beautiful boy Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with...his form; Then have I reason to be fond of grief. I rage against his struggle and pain and how his addiction has caused so much pain in our lives —...