There is a new way
or something thereabouts
says the school’s deputy
(he once a pupil here
and at Belthorn Primary too)

There is a new way
out here in Africa
where there is plenty
of a woman and child abuse
ignorance and illiteracy

There is a new way
as a great number
of female matriculants
take the honours
(the principal stresses
non-racialism non-sexism)

(my mom would have
approved what with
a new library too
though the spelling booboo
on the school’s Vision plaque
would have bothered her)

Oaklands High’s matrics
celebrate and are celebrated
on a wintry World Food Day evening
(perhaps the weather is a portent
of political storms soon to come)

There is a new way