ANTI-NOSTALGIA TRIP

dunno why i was thinking about this today, friends
fireseed's fertile mind
dredging up a forgotten fragment
of a bashful half-remembered kindergeist
that time when i was
a frightened little kid in a big scary world
(instead of a frightened big kid in a big scary world)
but guess we've all been there...
suppose it would be somewhere around 1975
(end of the vietnam war and start of pol pot's rampage
- to put it in a historical context!)
back at the old grey school
northfield manor junior and infants
our house backed onto the playground
one morning
we was in the little school assembly hall
which doubled as a kind of gym
they had this weird kind of climbing apparatus
the kids used to carry it out into the middle of the room
well one day our class is clearing this apparatus away
after PE
and i guess i'm just sitting there on my own
in my shorts
in the middle of the floor
minding my own business
just daydreaming as usual
wishing i was somewhere else
where i could call the shots
playing footy or cricket with the gang
in the park or something
anyway suddenly this huge heavy weight falls on me
like a baby elephant losing its footing
takes the wind out of me
almost knocks me senseless...
and suddenly i realise what it is:
its the teacher
miss jones
a big lady in flared trousers
shes gone and fallen backwards on top of me
not looking where she was going
as she was putting away the equipment
and right then she starts shouting at me:
'you stupid little boy
what do you think you're doing
sitting there in the middle of the floor?!'
not worried about my welfare
more concerned about her dignity
god, what an awful experience!
one of a few at that time in my life
the enforced socialisation
with people i didnae wish to socialise with...
give me the child for the first seven years of his life,
they say,
and give me...what?