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
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
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?
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.
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