Schooldays

Tinkling ivories

in a deserted school hall

at the dark end of the '80s.

Dust-choked curtains.

An introduction to the classics:

Ludwig van Beethoven and

Being Bullied for Beginners.

The next generation,

blanks to be filled in;

legerdemain in leather gloves,

executed by a legion

of Dr. Strangeloves

(decidedly strange).

"It's character-building," so they say.

I say let me build my character

in my own quiet way,

little by little

and piece by piece,

molecule by molecule,

mini quiche by mini quiche.

I do not deserve, want or need

any of the following:

a shatterproof ruler smacking my wrist,

a board rubber whistling past my head,

the flaming cheeks of a slapped Aris

or a Bunsen burner turned on my eyeball.

Sit down and write these lines, a hundred times:

"I must not use my powers for evil."

B.R. 19.02.2023

Ian Ogilvy as Grayson the school bully in Tomkinson's Schooldays, the first episode of Terry Jones and Michael Palin's "Ripping Yarns".