Billie Manning

6 July 2009

After Frank O’Hara

and it’s the middle of double drama, which is, this year, wedged between visits to the canteen, at break for a ham and cheese bagel, and then at lunch for a plate of pasta, which I will probably get into an argument with Leo about because he is Italian and considers the consistency of Lesley’s pasta bake an affront to his culture and I guess I consider it rude to tell someone that what they’re eating looks disgusting, and I am slightly more tired than usual from getting on the 7:42 instead of the 7:57 but I wanted to meet Anna and Caitlin early so we could get a sausage roll and talk about Skins because last night Sid finally kissed Michelle, and I am against this because Sid should be with Cassie, obviously, and it is three weeks after midsummer but the drama studio is cool and slow and it’s nearly the end of term so Sean has tricked Miss Hammer who I call Jo now into giving us a fun lesson and so we’re busy seeing if we can imitate different vehicles with our bodies and Miss Hammer or Jo is letting us listen to I Gotta Feeling on the computer speakers and discuss which day we should go to the iMax to see Half Blood Prince and then Mrs Michaels comes in from the office and asks for me and I give Hannah raised eyebrows even though I feel nervous because I’m thinking I must be in trouble for something but I don’t know what and when I walk out behind her Mrs Michaels isn’t looking at me and we are halfway across the playground and she says, she says to me your mother is here and I say okay and my dad? and I don’t know why she looks like she is starting to cry why she is shaking her head and saying no

BILLIE MANNING is a primary school teacher and writer from Hackney. You can find more of her work in Bad Betty’s Field Notes on Survival anthology, climate magazine It’s Freezing in LA! and Magma. She also teaches poetry courses, at City Lit and elsewhere.