The morning assembly is on at school.

But you sneak away to the neighbourhood park
(Beneath a large water tank that houses
  special children.)
In search of a hibiscus for the biology class
(It is the first period of the day).

The teacher plans to make you dissect a flower
And let you have a feel of the sepals and the petals
And the pollens and the stamen and the stigma.
(Labels that you have used in diagrams).

Clumsy even in doing a clandestine act
You noisily pluck the red shoeflowers.

Two people leap out from a nearby bush.
A young man (he looks like a labourer).
A young woman (the caretaker of autisic children).

                  


Their faces look so funny
And they flee from each other.
Nobody scolds you for the trespass.

You run back to school.
A dozen shoe-flowers in hand
(One for every friend of yours).

You reach class just in time
And begin to know first-hand
The mechanism of plant reproduction.



< Back | Slow Trains Contents | The Eighth Day of Creation Contents | Other Chapbooks | Next >