Lessons Learned

I’ll teach you a lesson you’ll never forget!
The headmaster stroked his worn leather strap
I trembled inside, he’s going to mess with me here

We found the drugs in your protractor set
I know, Sorry Sir. Yes Sir. Mournful eyes in my lap
Pull your trousers down! With his moist-eyed leer

And smoking with friends by the bicycle shed?
And twice before.  We caught you
You think you can do as you like?

Thwack, he stung me.  I want to be dead
Thwack, once again, remember what you do
Thwack, a searing. His dug-in spike

Thwack , the foot-long belt.  I bled
The message from the many to the few
This is your world in black and white

These lessons from my youth, suffering today
Thank my lucky stars I still listen and obey.
It’s what I deserve because it’s what you say

And still, and still, and still

Holy bosses preach from the horizon at the Post Office
The fallen bleachers at Hillsborough, still not resolved
Death masked Covid victims, hearts on the wailing wall
We don’t hear the Windrush or tainted blood from criminals
Both began over fifty years ago, no proper recompense
We still dismiss what Grenfell burned, their justice denied

This war of words binds, puts me in my place
I listen. You say Justice has and will be done

And yet, and yet, and yet

Ashen-faced, as you smother like a flood
Dreams washed away, like my brothers’ blood
Drones everywhere, hovering just above me
Lessons learned.  This is how you love me?
Whose land is my land, whose land is your land
These killing fields, desert fight, your ashes in the sand

Justice creeps so slowly, become the lessons learned
Fools and villains rule, we suffer, is this what we’ve earned?

©Christopher 2024