Found a new shade today
Scribbling with a pencil
Wish art class had taught me
How to draw a pear
Instead we drew soup cans
Hoping for a revolution
Instead we were out of proportion
Why do we forget our skills

Not used a compass in years
Not the one leading north
Should I revise my algebra
Instead of looking out of the window
Wishing the afternoon away
I forgot the smell of chalk
Blurred photocopies of a wooden fort
Medieval ways now out of thought

As we wander on to our futures
We split away from the past
We block out what we learnt
Me moved on pretty fast

This rugby shirt is two-sided and course
It always rained during cross-country
Racing around the perimeter of school
More like walking into the orchard
Was it necessary to throw the javelin
I’ll put the shot putting into my CV
Painting white our cheap plimsolls
Shuttlecocks hit far too hard

We learnt how to ask for wine in French
So in our midlife crisis we can be ahead
But in the decaying factories of Lancashire
The turners didn’t understand what you said
When I ended up in a job back in 1988
Nothing was worse than being idle or being late
Learning how to make coolant with oil
Eight hours of graft and toil

As we wander to our demises
We split open the past
We block all the useless shit out
Becoming zombies in the dark

What did we learn in the training school
First aid and how to crush aluminium cans
It took me three months to file a block of steel
I could never get the dimensions correct
Burning my fingers by arc welding
Had no patience for all the sheet work
I was more concerned with the chip shop
Could we get there and back in time

After over thirty years being an employee
All the mediocre subjects I learnt at school
The only thing that really stands out
Is it is important to abide to someone elses rules
Say goodbye to your independence
Suffer with the morning wake up call
What you learnt in those dusty schools
Really amounts to sod all

As we wander blindly into an insipid future
We pine for seeds of the past
We block out the monotonous day
Trying to get through the hours fast