MILK OF MALICE (BISCUIT AND MILK)

At start of school term,

Sir, 
inspecting lined up fingernails,

stuck out tongues,

skinned open eyeballs

for signs of malnutrition.

Then the charlatan would declare

"You look pale, you look frail,
you need some fat" and prescribe

Government non-fat powdered milk.

He did not care to hear

that (your father reared cattle)

you drank fresh cow's milk everyday

or that your poor stomach 
could not stomach

the nauseating non-fat milk,

mixed in plastic pails,

served at room temperature

in brightly coloured plastic cups,

which you could not refuse
or throw away

(but would make you sick 
to the stomach,

your stomach would reject,

forcibly eject,

throw up behind the school)

under fear of being caught

in the act

and administered,

on tightened seat of khaki trousers,

the guava rod which served

both punishment and persuasion.

Somehow he never prescribed the delicious

Government sweet biscuits kept crisp

in large Bermudez biscuit tins

for children of the privileged.

Somehow the terrorist

never told you that you had a choice;

that you,

and all the other pupils 
of your primary school,

were entitled

to sweet biscuits with your milk.

©2012 by G. Newton V. Chance