A Childhood Memory

A cold and dreary afternoon
in winter. The schoolboys
at their studies. The monotony
of rain on the windows.

It’s lesson time. A poster
has a picture of Cain
running away and Abel slain
beside a red stain.

In loud resounding tones
the teacher thunders, an old man,
badly dressed, dry and lean,
holding a book in his hand.

And all the children
recite the lesson in chorus:
"A thousand times a hundred makes one hundred thousand;
a thousand times a thousand makes one million."

A cold and dreary afternoon.
in winter. The schoolboys
at their studies. The monotony
of rain on the windows.