School Fight Poem by Terry Collett

How you got into a fight
with Woolgar in the school
playground God only knows
but it seems to stem from

him pushing into you and
knocking you against the wire
fence and then you rush at him
like a bull in a marketplace with

a flurry of punches catching him
high on the cheek with a tight fist
then a crowd gathers and an almost
perfect ring and on the periphery

out of the corner of your eye you
see them gathered excitedly chanting
loudly bundle bundle fight fight then
Woolgar put up his fists in front of

his face and you know instinctively
he’s no fighter that he’s not put
those fists up in a real fight and the
fire seeps from you and you move

your fists in the way you’d been taught
and duck and weave but you’re just
going through motions now and his eyes
widen in fear and you know you ought

to go off and leave him there as the
anger has almost gone then there’s
a shout of PREFECTS! and the audience
of eager schoolboys disperses and you

walk off into the crowd and Woolgar
drops his hands by his side and stares
up and out at the hills as if some voice
had called him like some ancient prophet

and the school prefects seeing nothing or
no one go off disgruntled and forget.