Liberté, Égalité, Humanité
there is only so long left of this public examination all is organised to this end our youth bent double drowning in academic gas interpreting Dulce et Decorum est while the RAF shake the building practising manoeuvres, virtue signalling overhead
~
CLP 08/06/2022
in England
exam halls full
biros scribbling
humidity and heat
someone decreed the tie must be worn
they will hear nothing of the lark
catch not the cuckoo calling
cannot simmer in the slow burn to Solstice
the ticking clock
ninety minutes of mathematics
a pair of blackbirds flush out the jay
heron stalking by the weir
deep dwellers snapping at surface midges
reeds revelling with rainbow trout
two hundred children sat in rows
stretched out under the sun
barley feathering the fields
the school year runs
in laps that tighten the adult grip
on childhood
~
CLP 07/06/2022
children of Texas
learn drills to escape shooters
law-makers profit
Mauripol children
learn Russian curriculum
teaching at gunpoint
~
n.b. In the USA the elephant in the classroom carries a gun because of a constitutional change way back in 1791. Surely it is time for a review of that blood-stained document?
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/05/gun-rights-groups-set-new-lobbying-spending-record-in-2021/
In Ukraine the elephants are cancelling school holidays and forcing children to learn a new history, this time from a Russian perspective. This is according to Petro Andryushchenko, a city official of Mauripol, The Guardian news publisher in London reports.
CLP 27/05/2022
I wrote to you
with my concerns and fears
for our collective future
(the children's too)
waited for your reply
I waited for you
to phone or call by
for a discussion
on how we might work it
through
I got your response
woven through my lines
explaining
you'd done everything
you could
I was grateful to be told
everything possible
was possible and was good
if everyone else does everything
that in your opinion they should
~
n.b. Are we employing the wrong people to run things? Why is it us not following their instructions, not them not listening?
Loving being back at work tbh; it’s a gas.
CLP 30/03/2022
What hurts us the most:
wounds inflicted by others;
seeing one’s own faults?
~
CLP 22/04/2021
Three of us it took, and over an hour, to agree
That all the cows were where they ought be
How many could we see and count
Fifty six should have been the right amount
Browns and blacks and Devon Reds shifted
As we counted, those huge beasts drifted
Heavy silhouettes turned to solid shapes
They moved and merged, seemed to evaporate
What was one, then sprung two more cud dribbling heads
Then a brown one suddenly grew six legs
And stretched out long until it was two
And so we had to start the count anew
Up on the hillside we saw them clearly
And at last confirmed the tally
Each of us found fifty six
But wished we had known the farmer’s tricks
.
n.b. To count the herd when there is no one about to help, organise the cattle to pass through a gate into the fresh pasture one at a time, counting them as they go
.
Christopher Perry
21st April, 2020
Voyage des Mots 