When Year Eleven Have Gone @BethBrooke8

Topic - Teaching

I will put my life in order

and the life of the department:

the English stock cupboard

will be tidied to within an inch

of its life.

There will be time, perhaps,

to review the schemes of work,

to decolonise the curriculum,

exam board requirements

not withstanding.

We can find a moment

to sit in the staffroom,

reacquaint ourselves

with the tea kettle, even wash

the mugs that we have only had

time to rinse all year.

When Year Eleven have gone

the sun will shine and we will

be relaxed and happy to go out

on playground duty

and we will crawl towards

the end of term, relieved

to have got this far,

too tired to do anything

but dream.

Poet's biography

Name: Beth Brooke

Place of residence: Dorset

Your favourite quote:

So there they go, Jim running slower to stay with Will, Will running faster to stay with Jim, Jim breaking two windows in a haunted house because Will’s along, Will breaking one window instead of none, because Jim’s watching. God, how we get our fingers in each other’s clay. That’s friendship, each playing the potter to see what shape we can make of the other.” It comes from Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. Such a description of the best friendships.

Your one wish for the world: Equality

Where can we find out more about you (Website link):

Twitter - @BethBrooke8

A small bio about:

Beth is a retired teacher, born in the Middle East but now living in Dorset. She loves cats, running, and her two wonderful sons. She is a Quaker. Her debut collection will be published by Hedgehog Press next year.