Tubthumper
01-Oct-07, 21:50
There comes a time
When enough is more than too much
When the drudgery of endless, unvarying, mundane repetition
Means dread in each morning’s rousing
Makes the head hang
Makes the shoulders slump
Leads the eye to the far horizon
And while the tongue still trots out trite tat
The mind dwells on finer, greater, bigger, further
Questions are missed
Answers become abrupt
A sense that the teacher no longer wishes to teach
That too much has been given away for too little return
In time it feels that one’s very essence is being sapped
That in every lesson a tiny piece
Tiny, and yet oh so significant
Is being leached away
Sucked from the soul by the vampire student
Whose eagerness to absorb reflects precisely…. what?
That there is much of substance in tired old formulae?
That some new enlightenment may become manifest
In a book written four hundred years yonder
By a man who knew nothing
Of physics, maths, or biochemistry
Nay, simply that the student MUST join the rat-race
Must prove he's as good at the same as those who went before
MUST throw his hat into the ring in the quest for bigger house, faster car
Better wife, better job…
Greater stress, increased pressure, more paper
That, my dear, is what makes the world tick, so we’re told
And to fail to fulfil one’s apparent potential
Is a crime in some vague, unspecified Calvinistic way
And then, once the ulcer has burst, along with the latest economic bubble
When the wife has departed, the kids are repossessed and the car adopted
See the burnt out chassis of yet another soul
Whose only crime was to be fooled into joining the rush
Down the fast path to some utopian oblivion
Safe in the knowledge that although failure was almost certain
Failure to follow would lead to an even worse fate
His head hangs
His shoulders slump
Have we lost something somewhere?
Or is it simply time I changed jobs?
When enough is more than too much
When the drudgery of endless, unvarying, mundane repetition
Means dread in each morning’s rousing
Makes the head hang
Makes the shoulders slump
Leads the eye to the far horizon
And while the tongue still trots out trite tat
The mind dwells on finer, greater, bigger, further
Questions are missed
Answers become abrupt
A sense that the teacher no longer wishes to teach
That too much has been given away for too little return
In time it feels that one’s very essence is being sapped
That in every lesson a tiny piece
Tiny, and yet oh so significant
Is being leached away
Sucked from the soul by the vampire student
Whose eagerness to absorb reflects precisely…. what?
That there is much of substance in tired old formulae?
That some new enlightenment may become manifest
In a book written four hundred years yonder
By a man who knew nothing
Of physics, maths, or biochemistry
Nay, simply that the student MUST join the rat-race
Must prove he's as good at the same as those who went before
MUST throw his hat into the ring in the quest for bigger house, faster car
Better wife, better job…
Greater stress, increased pressure, more paper
That, my dear, is what makes the world tick, so we’re told
And to fail to fulfil one’s apparent potential
Is a crime in some vague, unspecified Calvinistic way
And then, once the ulcer has burst, along with the latest economic bubble
When the wife has departed, the kids are repossessed and the car adopted
See the burnt out chassis of yet another soul
Whose only crime was to be fooled into joining the rush
Down the fast path to some utopian oblivion
Safe in the knowledge that although failure was almost certain
Failure to follow would lead to an even worse fate
His head hangs
His shoulders slump
Have we lost something somewhere?
Or is it simply time I changed jobs?