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First, Division

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Long Division came first
in the list of fears,
followed in later years
by algebra and calculus.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Learning by rote,
we were never taught
that independent thought
could turn a minus to a plus.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Or that our real exams
would mark us for life:
stress, tedium and strife
would be our syllabus.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 The count from nine to five-
every minute, every second
a lifetime drudged and reckoned
on a slow-decaying abacus.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 But when all numbers add
to ninety, or an extra thirty
and then we count each penalty,
raptures multiply inside us.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/first-division/