By Annie Shepherd for The Parisian Post.
In Paris, May 22-24, the OECD’s annual forum focuses on the importance of Skills and Education. Annie Shepherd muses…
Crouched by a river, dodging school
a little boy prefers to dream, not do
parents absent, no one vouches for his learning
no-one listens to his yearning
even he is lost to know.
The years flow by and who will show him
how to turn his life around
and look at his reflection?
One day he sees an old man pleading –
image in the water, drowning:
“Young boy, this river holds the tears I’m shedding,
I never learnt that life is made for learning,
So now I am too old before my age…
Learn to fish, take up your tools,
the tackle, lines and float, the bait and spools.”
The boy ignores him, breaks a branch
and threads a net with grass –
learns too late that fish swim through a badly crafted task.
He truly shunned the skills to lure them
fell in love and then had children
but had no means to help and feed them
He cannot fish, he has no skills.
and this can only lead to ills
and one by one they start to starve.
He never learnt to build a boat,
he cannot keep them all afloat.
Stuck in quicksand, an old man sighs
who never helped himself, who cried
“Take up your tools and learn.”
copyright © 2012 Annie Shepherd all rights reserved
Contact Annie Shepherd to obtain a copy of her collection of poems “Jostled by Ghosts”.
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