Monday 30 August 2021

grammar school in the 1960s

 grammar school in the 1960s


dull cloth blazer

not the shiny sort

  me

calling our dining room the kitchen

during a french lesson

  me

crickets nets?

fives courts?

what is confidence?

why is everyone so tall? 

and religion in the hall

and readings in the chapel

sunday school

  me


the man under the gymnasium 

in the workshop

mending desks

with his white apron stained

fishy wood glue

desk lids inked with the past

boys 

why is there a girls entrance 

in a boys only school?


fights in the yard 

gowned chalk-smooth masters 

pulling ears into detention 

or the cane 

when the headmaster’s light turned green 

and in you went 

and out you came 

tight lipped in shame

like when you walked the rows of desks

after the slipper was applied

pride tight lipped 

beside the misted windows

hands gripping the thick radiator 

silvered by time’s boring brush 

  me


did we fit in?

with the other classes 

in the other form rooms

housemaster as foreign a concept

at the dark side of the moon

  me

in the stone-dumb edifice standing

room only for tradition is

the well-trodden paths

the glittering prizes

no surprises 

  me


getting by

and bye and bye

goodbye

another path running into the sand

the fanned breezes of childhood

closing back into a shellac stick

the promises that were displayed 

like a peacock

ill timed peradventure 

perhaps not

  me


the warm sun on the back

of a retreating blazer

school badge threadbare 

cap gone missing long ago

short trousers now as long as

the lonely walk of failure

it was as implicit as the golden boys

shining in their new dawns

the moonlight pale

  me

on my way

to nowhere in particular 

post particular 

grammatically incorrect 

my word

oh my word


  me?



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