Kenny Knight
Grade Four
I cried on my first day at school
This is traditionally a child’s privilege.
I didn’t want to leave my mother alone
At the school gate like an unloved scarecrow
I didn’t want her to feel sad walking home
Through the new born fields of tin cans
That dead morning when separation
Was the next dish after breakfast.
I’m modest enough now to admit it
I’ve still got the tears somewhere
I take the handkerchief out now and then
Like a souvenir from a weepy movie
And dab early childhood into my eyes.
Later I failed the eleven plus
A year or so after Tim failed his
Which I regret now. Not the fact
That Tim failed his but because
I could have taken the day off
And headed for Portland with my notebook.
Five years later I graduated from academia
With a grade four in Modern History
This wasn’t remarked upon in the global
Press at the time
I suppose men walking on the moon
Was considered more newsworthy
Than a schoolboy walking home across
Honicknowle Green with a C.S.E. certificate.
And the same grade in Religious Knowledge
Never motivated any angels to fly over
The garden which was mostly cabbages
And if God ever called to offer
Extra tuition, no-one ever said.
My formal education ended there
Soon after I left hone
For the streetlights and the covens
Of blues and rock
Spending three or four evenings
A week at night school
Learning how to spell backwards
In the bad book dark.
Page(s) 85
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