Year Three Crisis

By Lynn Ockersz

Of the ‘musts’ in learning,

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic,

Our hapless Year Three child,

Has taken only modest morsels,

Though he’s trudged to school,

With a few gulps of water,

To douse the flames inside,

Tip-toeing over creaky planks,

Spanning streams turning to dust,

Unfailingly like a morning prayer,

Over the past three years,

The desire remaining strong,

To earn a Secondary School slot,

Since learning he has come to prize,

But let none dare talk down to him,

Or rap him over the knuckles,

Because this crisis was foist on him,

By elders feigning fatherly love,

Speaking of grand visions,

Set in some hazy future,

Evading here and now problems,

But time is of the essence;

The nation’s future is verily in danger.