Echo

Dedicated to Ms De Havilland

As a child they could not keep me from the national curriculum
I read one poet for four years straight
Inspecting his words
Until I knew the correct way to interpret
The sounds, the syllables
The emphasis, the meaning
I still remember the gurgle of onomatopoeia
Annotating the margins
Alliteration
How many marks to the question
But I also remember the library
The echo of the old building
Finding a book on myths
And writing down everything I could find
Proud to share my research
My teacher asked Did you get this from Spark Notes?
Or maybe it was Cliff Notes
It was one of the Notes brothers I don’t remember
Later on I got a high pass
I was asked to do another essay
Because my B could have been a fluke
I got a low pass
My teacher was satisfied
I replanted myself in the library
Where I was fed, watered and bathed in sun
The worker bees filling the cells around me
I helped myself to the nectar
Every day I got greedier
Until it was time to leave
I still remember the final words
If you can write like this you’ll go far

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