Phyllis McKenna

 

Don’t twist in your chair

Don’t put that down there

My teacher moans every day

 

Don’t mumble when you talk

Don’t slouch when you walk

Why do parents go on that way

 

My teacher’s the same

Dynan’s her name

Teaches things we don’t want to know

I don’t want to hear

About Quinivere

Or Henry with so many wives

Trigonometry

Doesn’t interest me

Or presidents and their various lives

 

I want to know about women

How do I ask for a date

What do I wear

To make her aware

That a night out with me would be great

 

I want to know about wardrobe

About levis, chinos and all

I want to play

For United some day

I want to know about football

 

So c’mon all you teachers and listen

Teach us what we want to know

Don’t block our young minds with knowledge

Let our own ideas blossom and show.

 

 

 

I’ve been told I’m not romantic

Don’t write lovers notes

Don’t print a name upon my arm

Or recite flowery quotes

 

I don’t like weepy movies

They don’t produce a tear

Soppy love songs turn me off

There’s no hope for me, I fear

 

M heart is made of granite

I’m a statue made of stone

I’m doomed to be uncaring

To live my life alone

 

And yet I watch the T V news

See the evil that men do

The savage, brutal torture

The senseless waste of two

 

I see those who lay down their lives

For a cause they think is right

Why should the colour of one’s skin

Be reason for a fight

 

I see a child so far away

His face is filled with pain

The Third World is crying out

For succour once again

 

I see poverty and misery

People struggling to live

Anger bred from hatred

Unwillingness to forgive

 

Perhaps I’m not a hardened case

Emotionless after all

When I see the state this world is in

Silent tears fall

 

Now Mary was a clever girl

Top class grades at school

She never crossed the teacher

Obeyed each and every rule

 

She was very good at English

At Maths she did excel

Tops at French and History

Geography as well

 

She was indeed the teachers pet

Disliked by all around

She told on everyone

Any discrepancies that she found

 

Soon she was left all alone

No friends to chatter to

No secrets shared with Mary

They knew what she would do

 

Now many years have passed since school

Mary’s changed her life

Five children and a husband

She makes a docile wife

 

Mary doesn’t go out much

Her husband tells her “N0”

He’s afraid of what would happen

If her cuts and bruises show

 

Mary yearns for a friend now

Regrets her time at school

She wishes that she’d helped to break

One academic rule

 

She needs someone to talk to

To share her secret fears

But there’s no one to see her

Shed her silent tears

 

The morale of this story is

Don’t turn your friends away

Don’t make them fear and hate you

You’ll need their help some day.