Michael
Michael
Michael fell asleep in class last week,
face down on the desk.
Spark out in the middle of maths.
Mr Jones told us off for laughing, but
didn’t seem cross with him at all.
Michael plays alone at break.
He just stands, staring into space,
watching the sky. Looking odd.
But the teacher on duty always goes
over and chats to him.
They never do that for us.
Michael only has a biscuit in his lunchbox
most days so the cook gives him stuff
for free.
Michael never takes his shoes and socks off
even when we do gym or dance
and Mr Jones lets him –
we all have to do it barefoot.
Michael gets loads of stickers
and certificates off all the adults
whenever he does anything.
Once, Leah swears she saw the Head,
Mrs Malone, wipe away a tear after she’d
seen his book and he’d only written a sentence.
Michael must be really lucky.
Matt
Copyright: from Being Me (Otter Barry, 2021), © Matt Goodfellow 2021, used by permission of the author and publisher.