I guess we can all recall the anxiety

Of being young and the need to "depend",

When each day could be a misery -

Like being thrown in life's deep end.

 

When lesson breaks meant a playground

Where bullies glowered and lurked.....

School toilets where you didn't hang around

If your self-preservation worked.

 

It could seem as if threat was everywhere

(The teachers remote and uncaring)

When school was out and you clutched your fare

That the bullies sought for their sharing.

 

But these torments and the lessons taught

Were an apprenticeship for the world

That lay ahead...much of it fraught...

Into which we find ourselves hurled.

 

The trick, of course, is to celebrate

Those "best days of your life"

With the brain and wit to resist hate

And the lure of gang and knife.

........................................................................