Even Prompter

Culture Shock

Culture Shock

I had it off a newcomer to our school;
from Glasgow he came, a place even then
of ill repute and accent strong, and he,
transported inexplicably to an Africa
still innocent and an age group barely aware
of the meaning of the cascading words
that flowed from his unimaginable experience,
taught us the words of a drinking song,
a rollicking, frolicking, drinking song,
that flowed from his tongue and beguiled our minds,
and told of a farmer and his rage
at some children who seemed harmless enough,
hands in pockets as they stood nearby,
till a lady with fresh educational ideas
arrived with a walk like a waddle.
It was a long tale with many, many lines
that made use of rhymes without owning any,
and, in all of its convoluted story,
employed no profanity at all except one,
and that saved for the final line,
yet it remains the most filthy, most disgusting,
most terrible, most amusing, and clever
of all the songs that I know and the one song
I cannot sing in company, respectable or not.


Line count: 24
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry, Week 32
Prompt: Write a poem inspired by a moment from childhood, either real or fictional.
In your poem, make use of anaphora (repetition).