Down By The Frozen River

Silhouetted by the dawn

The schoolboys shuffled and yawned

Muffled underfoot by blankets of snow

Observed by a solitary crow

Traipsing across those wintry fields

Me and my friends pretending to be ill

Then, wheeling away from school

The humour turned cruel

Platform soles of ice and mud

Blazers of fur caked in blood

In thicket dens on makeshift beds

Quarts of cider spinning heads

Faking intimacies with unobtainable girls

Inventing futures in an uncertain world

Like seeds on frozen soil the wind had blown

Who can reap what cannot be sown?

Othеrs studied hard – stayed behind aftеr class

Convinced a better life might lie within grasp

The relentless broadcasts in received pronunciation

Consolidating this indoctrination

But, over-educated to the point of stupidity

Many lost their spirit as well as their liberty

Faced with a future – to which my kind is consigned

I escaped with an empty head – but an open mind