Howard Linton
Eleven, and hyperactive:
The classroom rang with his voice,
His great round head split with smiles.
He never remembered his books, his pen:
He couldn’t sit still for thirty seconds.
But the school treated his problem
“As a disciplinary matter”
And they didn’t like West Indians.
So they disciplined Howard Linton
And disciplined him again:
And little by little
He lost his smile
And muttered of heavyweight boxers
And wrote one-syllable graffiti.
Howard Linton, the last I heard
Was detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure,
The eighteen-year-old look-out
In an armed robbery.
His classroom is a cell,
His teachers prison guards.
Page(s) 113
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