As, like, is "A school is a factory is a poem is a prison is academia is boredom, with flashes of panic.” —Joseph Brodsky, Less Than One We almost clocked in at registration, As close to a factory as we would get In the days of unemployment, of empty industry. Certainly in photos it looks as if We were made on an assembly line Of unflattering 80s hair And questionable sapphire kohl. They'd put the finishing touches To our unformed faces later, bring us up to standard, uniform. The prison part was new-build and squat, not porridgey Victorian - No gothic here, just old stained concrete And a baking freezing perma portacabin, Carpet like sparse astroturf. The barbed wire Keeping us in was time and time to learn. Academia was the English teacher who drank And the ones we said who couldn't, taught Though now I know how difficult the job is, Poor warders of knowledge. And yes, the boredom, yes , the sudden panic Of wrong hair, wrong words, of endless fitting in , Of te...
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