A February Testing

A FEBRUARY TESTING Distant voices through a window Steamed up with thirty nervous breaths And the thunder of a pencil dropped Like a twig falling in a pond The silence is choking, a penalty Awaits the boy who dares call His friends for help. You pass or fail alone. clock ticks are a measure of the time left to prove your worth The pens scratch in controlled fever As the white paper yawns before And the ink is squeezed unwillingly From a pen tip wet with sweat. The exam drowns everything for a moment You must pass the testing. Fifty years on another test May depend more or less On the way you handle this stress But far off horizons cannot intrude At the moment in youth when The date of Napoleon’s death is crucial Time crawls for you, races for another. You are the sole oarsman in this boat: which is all Your life - For now