Benedict
sitting next
to Ingrid
on the grass

outside
Banks House
remembered one
of his female

junior school teachers
who always wore
short sleeved
flowered dresses

in summer  
and imagined
the dark hair
under her armpits

were small pets
she had secreted
into school
but when she

leaned over him
to check out
his school work
he thought  

that maybe
one of the secreted pets
had either
dirtied itself

or had died there
and he had to
hold his nose
the best way

he could
without appearing
disrespectful
or rude

blushing slightly
as if he had gone
to school
in the ****.