This is one of the only poems written from a first person perspective, where the story isn’t true. I wrote this more as a story because I feel that it represents the education of too many young people today.

The simple things that we were taught,
The lessons we learnt, the books we bought,
All the kids knew, that it wasn’t cool,
We never wanted to be at school.

Now we look back later in life,
At the trouble we caused, the mischief and strife,
Perhaps our behaviour could have been a bit better,
Maybe my parents wouldn’t have received that letter.

I remember the day, I was sent far away,
The headmaster was stern, he told me I’d pay.
“Smith” he said, “you’ve got no manners”,
“All you ever do, is drive us bananas”.

I can look back now, see where I was wrong,
I sat round smoking cannabis from a bong,
I missed out many lessons, I didn’t do P.E.
And now all these things come back to haunt me.

I ruined my education by playing around,
I just should have worked, not made a sound,
I was too proud, I thought it wasn’t cool,
But oh how I wish, that I’d been at school.

(c) Matt Davies 2005