Poem 536

Frustrated at work and frustrated at home, pity this poor woman blocked by recalcitrant maleness wherever she turns …

Boy And Man

He stares at you
this child in your class
you can't teach him to write
but somehow he records
all your failures

you say there is one
in every year
                          an affliction
and you strangely the centre
of his resistant little life

you are talking to me
but I'm not listening
we're reading the paper
that intransigent boy and me
the two of us working shifts
to wear you down
both of us proud of what we refuse to do

we won't learn from you
                                                 not from you