Teacher's Dead (19 page)

The good news is that the documentary was scrapped, I got pretty good exam grades, and I finished painting the front door.

The End

How do you like your truth?

Gently spoken on breakfast TV

By a man and a woman who sit comfortably

Saying riots, and murder, when will it end?

As they struggle to act as if they are good friends.

How do you like your truth?

Bite-sized in sound bites cut easy to chew,

With a talking head saying the victim’s like you,

And when you’ve digested the horrors you’ve seen

You find good, you find evil, with no in-between.

How do you like your truth?

Fantastic, sensational, printed in bold,

Today it’s exclusive, tomorrow it’s old,

All on the surface with nothing too deep

With a story about animals to help you to sleep.

How do you like your youth?

From perfect families with parents that care,

Or in perfect families but still in despair,

Ten out of ten parents say they’d not choose

To have bad kids like those kids they see in the news.

Also by Benjamin Zephaniah

Face
Refugee Boy
Gangsta Rap

First published in Great Britain 2007
Copyright © Benjamin Zephaniah

This electronic edition published 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

The right of Benjamin Zephaniah to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 4088 2541 9

www.bloomsbury.com/BenjaminZephaniah

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