Carol Ann Duffy — In Mrs Tilschers Class

In Mrs Tilscher's class You could travel up the Blue Nile with your finger, tracing the route while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery. ”Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswan.” That for an hour, then a skittle of milk and the chalky Pyramids rubbed into dust. A window opened with a long pole. The laugh of a bell swung by a running child. This was better than home. Enthralling books. The classroom glowed like a sweetshop. Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. Brady and Hindley faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake. Mrs Tilscher loved you. Some mornings, you found she'd left a good gold star by your name. The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved. A xylophone's nonsense heard from another form. Over the Easter term the inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks. Three frogs hopped in the playground, freed by a dunce followed by a line of kids, jumping and croaking away from the lunch queue. A rough boy told you how you were born. You kicked him, but stared at your parents, appalled, when you got back home That feverish July, the air tasted of electricity. A tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot, fractious under the heavy, sexy sky. You asked her how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled then turned away. Reports were handed out. You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown the sky split open into a thunderstorm.