Buy a child's red-covered <br />'My Exercise Book' <br />like the one you bought <br />all those years ago <br />to build a bridge - <br />now you realise - <br />a warm reassuring bridge <br />between school and home <br />with its firm hand-rail <br />at both ends; <br />the river flowing so fast, <br />so powerful, <br />so beautiful <br />between those different banks <br />in the blank pages <br />of that book with its reassuring tables <br />on the back cover which speak of laws <br />which you may never read <br /> <br />then with the sharpened pencil <br />and the smell of cedar flakes <br />faling from the pencil-sharpener <br />sweet and haunting to your nose <br />and breathing heavier now <br />in this exciting, daunting task, <br />your head nearer the paper <br />than old schoolteachers would approve <br />and pencil gripped as firmly <br />as you would your life <br />write so carefully on the first white page <br />as if the beginning holds the whole story <br />intended but as yet unfurled, <br /> <br />'My Life'..<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0030-your-my-life-exercise-book/
