The Tuesday Poem

THE READING LESSON Richard Murphy

Fourteen years old, learning the alphabet, He finds letters harder to catch than hares Without a greyhound. Can't I give him a dog To track them down, or put them in a cage? He's caught in a trap, until I let him go, Pinioned by "Don't you want to learn to read?"I'll be the same man whatever I do".

He looks at the page as a mule balks at a gap From which a goat may hobble out and bleat. His eyes jink from a sentence like flushed snipe Escaping shot. A sharp word, and he'll mooch Back to his piebald mare and bantam cock. Our purpose is as tricky to retrieve As mercury from a smashed thermometer.