Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

In a Second-Hand Copy of Durrell’s Clea:
A School Photograph of a Little Girl

She has obviously been commanded to smile
And so she projects a dutiful grin
But she seems to be a happy child anyway
Proud of her new red shirt with polka-dots

We send our children to school to learn to read
To add, subtract, multiply, and divide into groups
For P.E. class, to line up nicely for lunch
To pass notes, giggle, and plant seeds in eggshells

We don’t know how this child’s image found its way
To an Alexandria that never really was