Shoot the teacher

a poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Our school was a massive grey building
with hundreds of tiny windows.
Looking up the building leaned forward
and cast an evil shadow.
We are introducing English this semester,
our teacher three of us were not included.
Stupid, stupid, stupid other children in the yard chanted
as they danced around us and our teacher laughed.

Picked up a brick and broke the nose on one of our tormentors
and became an instant protector of the two
who were too timid to defend themselves.
Expelled, sent to a farm as a correction,
but backfired on them ’cause
I enjoyed the company of animal.
The school has been erased,
the teacher long since dead,
but stupid, stupid, stupid, still rings in my ears.