Black and White.

Gathered for a photograph in four ascending rows, and

guided by their teacher’s gaze, a class of vocal children pose.

All the boys are standing up; all the girls are seated;

variously polished, buckled, brushed and neatly pleated.

Blinking in the drenching flash they dim their grin-contorted faces,

bustle back to classroom tables chattering and trailing laces;

back to scratching silence and the worry of the weekly tests

that stress the strengths and weaknesses on which a fluid future rests

where other generations gathered noisily in formal rows

will grow to learn, as those before them, things that teachers don't disclose.