Education Lost

On a hot hot day and for the heat

To drink there a snake came to my water-pond

In the deep, strange shade of the great dark tree

I came down the steps with my pitcher

And must wait, must stand and wait

For there he was at the pond before me

Someone was before me at my water-pond

And I, like a second-comer waiting

He looked at me so vaguely and flickered his tongue 

And stooped and drank a little more

Voice of my education said to me

He must be killed

And voice in me said

If you were a man

You would take a stick and break him now,

And finish him

Finish him off

I dared not kill him

I longed to talk to him

Perversity?

Humility?

I feel so honoured

Human Education

Education lost

Human Education

Perversity, humility 

Finish him off

What a mean act, how vulga

What a mean mean act