JUST ANOTHER SCHOOL DAY
Morning bell has rung,
morning roosters all have sung.
Happy kids flood school gates,
eager to learn, eager to learn,
eager to learn the lessons of life.
Master walks in. Books in arms, smile on face.
Master walks to desk, brown box, covered with lace.
They stand up, and say ‘Good Morning, Master,’
She replies with, ‘Thank you, thank you,
Thank you for saying hello.’
They sit down, smooth out their dress,
bright cotton white beaming from their chests.
Jasmine flowers flow in and out of pleated braids.
How perfect, just perfect,
How perfect to be right there, like that?
Master walks to blackboard.
Children take their blackboards.
Master takes white chalk, writes cat on board.
Children take white chalk, write cat, cat,
Children write cat for 50 times to come.
Master writes 2 x 3, 2 x 4, 2 x 6.
Children shoot hands in the air, waiting to see who
she picks.
Master says, ‘You!’ points to tiny girl.
Tiny girl stands, stands, stands,
tiny girl stands, brown feet on dirt ground, hands by
her side.
‘Six, master,’ ‘eight, master,’ ‘twelve, master.’
‘Well done, but do a little faster.’
Tiny girl stands and repeats,
repeats, repeats,
repeats with rhythm, and red beats on her hands.
Tiny girl sits, with smile in no sight,
Master goes on, with only sunlight.
Children stand up and sing their prayers,
prayers, prayers,
children sing their prayers of worship to achieve
happiness soon.
Master dismisses the children to home.
How fast these times must go.
As the crickets soon begin to chirp their night song,
it is my time to say, ‘So long,’
‘so long, so long.’
So long to this magical world of numbers and words,
which I wish to be a part of, as do songbirds,
and I leave this window of hopes and dreams,
dreams, dreams,
as I part from this window of hopes and dreams, and go
home.
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EXPLANATION:
This poem, ‘Just Another School Day,’ was
written from the perspective of a little village girl
in India, as she recounts the wonders she sees of the
‘magical world’ called school. As she watches through
the school window the exciting and fun things that
occur, she longs to be a part of it, however, she
unable to be a part of it because she needs to have a
uniform in order to have an education and go to
school. This is a situation that occurs frequently
around the world, especially in the third-world
countries, and needs to be addressed.
Damayanthi Paul
