When Mr Hedley McFadyen was fifteen, his English teacher set an assignment. Everyone must write a poem. The teacher would print them off on an old gestetner and staple the pages together to make a little poetry booklet. It was like being published!
Hedley wrote his poem. It began:
Vietnam! Yes! Spring is there now!
But what can be seen but the splattered jaw
Of the soldier lying, dying there now?
The editor of the school year book so liked Hedley’s poem that he published it in that year’s edition. Unnamed, of course. An anonymous poem. Vietnam. Composed by an Anonymous Student.
That was years ago. Mr Hedley McFadyen was a teacher himself now. He set his English class an assignment. Everyone must write a poem. One student, Josh Shackleton, wrote his poem. It began:
Syria! Yes! Spring is there now!
But what can be seen but the splattered jaw
Of the soldier lying, dying there now?
Mr Hedley McFadyen gave him an A.