6am wakeup call

teeth brushed

shower

underwear

undershirt

shirt

skirt

tie

cufflinks

food

(sometimes not)

car

car

braids (two, french, no fringes)

car

car

greeting gods

greeting teachers

greeting friends (this time smiling)

the alarm song

boasting of other people’s successes

(crushing of your self-worth)

preaching

preaching

preaching

that goes on and on and on and on

professing loyalty

to nation, gods, school,

the system

and so “the learning” begins

groggy

half asleep

listening to people reading from textbooks

writing on boards

and copying them into your notebook

(neat,in blue ink

because they check

how you record your thoughts,

no

not the things you write,

the way your script is

inked onto paper)

a lesson on morality

stories

anecdotes

words written two, three, four millennium ago

this

this is how you are supposed to

live

love

grow

work

a morning break

(sometimes,the only time you have for lunch

fried nuggets

and sticky rice

shoved down your throat

because ‘lunch’

apparently means

additional lessons)

only 10 am

and you are bled through

lessons

chemistry

biology

physics

geology

languages

social studies (

history

geography

governance

human rights

philosophy

the world

crushed down into

one 

single subject)

a lunch break

(though sometimes not)

laughing

crying

wondering

imagining

scared of

what the future holds

dark

bright

muddy

the lessons resume

memorise

memorise

memorise

your life depends on it

memorise 

another break

resume

and you are free

(but not really)

clean sweep clear

eat

then home again

shower

eat

study

study

study

study

worried

crying

alone

study

study

study

then bed.

you dream of yourself

as a child

learning for the first time

of

Einstein, Edison, Marie Curie,

Asimov, Hughes, Angelou

when you wake up

there are tears

dried on your face.