I so remember - twelve years old -

Running home with my Math paper

99% in bold red across the top.

Racing full tilt to show my mother

How well I had done.

Teacher had been full of smiles.

 

I burst through the door.

'Mummy! Mummy! Look what I did!

Ninety-nine percent!'

She was at the sink peeling potatoes.

She turned, wiping her hands in her apron.

'Well! And why wasn't it a hundred?'

 

BAM!

Patted and flattened in a single breath.

Caught between a groan and a giggle

I 'got the point' – instantly.

She held the bar high

And I loved her for it!

Cynthia Buell Thomas, June, 2019