My! The beach it looks so cool today
With the sun shining down, the tide in
The golden sands, the lovely blue sea
How I'd love to be down there now,
messing about among the rocks
Fishing for *****, looking in the rock
pools
Paddling through the water,
swimming out in the tide,
Having a picnic with my Mom; she'd
have the blanket laid out
For us all to sit upon
She'd have lovely scones with butter
and strawberry jam
And lovely hot sugary tea
And "Go on, go get an ice cream from
the ice cream man".
But No! I can't, I've got to go to school
today
With this heavy schoolbag strapped to
my back with all my books in it
Yea, I got to go to school today and
face the scary teacher
The way she shouts at us and
brandishes that ruler of hers
And she'll slap you if you don't have
the right answer
Scary! Scary! Teacher
She's not at all like my Mother, my
Mom she's so soft and kindly.....
And she worries a lot I can tell, Mom
you mustn't worry,
She looks so sad sometimes I could cry.
At school how time, it moves so slow
O! I wish, how I wish I didn't have to
go
As children we're all thrown together,
it gets so noisy and there's quarrels
And some of the bigger boys from the
older classes
Their nasty, they push you around
and want to fight with you.
Coming back to class from the
toilets sometimes, on my own
I stop there & look out the door at
the empty playground
The leaves blowing in the wind, the
sparrows busy about
And then I look at the school gates and
I think
" Beyond those school gates lies Home"
How I wish then I could just run home
I'd run and I'd run
Run past the gates of the houses with
their angry barking dogs
I'd run ! Run the whole way, I wouldn't
stop:
I want to be at home with my Mom
Up in my room with my books, my
comics and toy soldiers.
But No! they say the Guard(policeman)
he'd be doing his rounds now
And if he was to see you, he'd catch
you
And then there'd be trouble then, Big
Big! Trouble!!!
Mum would be brought down and Dad
would have to be told too
At least, that's what they tell me,
More trouble for Mum
So I can't - I must go to school then.
Yes! I've got to go to school today and
face again the scary teacher
At least I got my homework done, but
there's still so much
I don't understand...so many things...
so many things to learn,
Scary! Scary! Teacher! she never looks
happy
She laughs at us and calls us bad
names
Just sitting there we tighten up inside,
under her gaze
And we pray "please don't ask me,
please don't ask me
Please don't call out my name",
How we watch that clock up on the
wall
Praying for 3 o'clock to arrive.
Why is it I had to come to this place?
Why!!!
I don't want to be here, I want to be at
home with my Mom.
Yes! I'd love to be down there today on
the beach
But I got to go to school today.
I travel to work on the train that goes along the coast so I see beaches and boats. I was thinking how as a child we had to go to school but longed to be elsewhere and here I am today going to work on a lovely day, wishing too I was elsewhere so nothing much has changed. -I did a painting once of 'coming back from the toilets to class but stopping to look out the door at the empty playground & wishing I were home. It brought up a lot of old memories. This is where this poem came from. Is a child's eye view. Hope you enjoy.
