The Verse Of Experience Poem by valerie Hartland

Why is it that writing verse
Comes at such a price a cost?
For years we sit in the classrooms gloom
While over us the teachers loom

Each English lesson you think cannot get worse
That is till the teacher tells you to write a verse
You sigh and think it can't get worse than this
So you try ‘I need the toilet miss'

You stick another safety pin in your skirt
To make sure it reaches up to your thigh
You check your make up dreaming of your first kiss
When you come out the headmistress asks you what is this?
And tells you to ‘do up the buttons on your shirt…
You do not come to school to flirt'

While you try to find some words to rhyme
You think perhaps I'll try a poem about my mum
You take so long you get kept in for extra time
But all you can think of to rhyme is bubble gum!

So you try to write your little verse
but each attempt it just gets worse
you can only think of words you must not use
like what rhymes with mum...is up your ** um! ! !
half hour later you still can't write a word
And teacher says her lessons you never heard

Then suddenly at fifty two
Verse flows from you
Like there's no tomorrow
Maybe that's because the lesson learned
Is tomorrow is really quite unsure
Verse flows with thoughts of emotions raw
It comes at a cost…
The cost is life and loss