Go to your room
you’ve been
a little naughty

(no pudding for you
even though you
seem to have eaten
your vegetables)

go to your room
public nuisance
that you are like
that sailors’ dog

once more is he
accused of speaking
in the little enclave when
he has not been spoken to

South Peninsula High’s
principled principal
(Mr Brian Isaacs)
is said to be insolent
by the powers-that-blunten

go to your room
finger on your lips
go and write out
a 1000-line intonation

thou shalt be
a compliant vessel
in our image
thou shalt
roll over
and be obedient
(toe the party’s line)
thou shalt not
have a liberated
mind or point of view

(did you not get
the paperwork to checkbox)

The Cape Colony’s education department has all the time, vigour and foresight – notwithstanding the country-beloved’s literacy and numeracy challenges (“Isaacs in hot water again”, Argus, November 11 2015).