Impatience

A swirling kaleidoscope of red and red and red
It's creeping like the smell of boiled cabbage down school
corridors
Echoing with pointed footsteps
Into classrooms filled with the painful scritch of fingernails on well
scratched blackboards
Chalk on my fingers, and I can't wash it off
And the taste of burnt plastic in my mouth
It reminds me of marmite, and buttered toast
Remembering waiting for my breakfast - Sunday mornings -
And those slow, sleepy seconds
Bread dozing in the toaster
And the steady crunch of rice crispies
Wind blowing over drooping eyelids
And the stripes on the pavement carry on for ever and ever and-