My old school reports I’d thought buried away

Have been found at the back of a drawer

Reading the comments my teachers had left

Have shaken me right to the core

 

So many terms, and all uninspiring,

“Could do much better” or “can’t quite engage.”

A stockpile of phrases adapted to suit.

With vitriol etched on each page.

 

There was rarely a glowing appraisal

More common the “doubt he’ll achieve …”

A Headmaster’s footnote left no one in doubt

 “Stephen flatters again to deceive.”

 

Einstein I wasn’t, I knew that full well

But “slapdash and careless I fear”??

It may have been best if I never had ‘found’

These records of miserable years.