History Class
In History Class, Mrs. Raj, wound up in a green sari,
Talked around the clock about kapal- kapal
Iropah that would dock, occasionally, as I nod
Off, Mrs.Raj would stop.
“Pull up your socks!” she’d say, like a siren
Distressing our ears, and all the poor dears
In History Class.
I. PULL. MY. BLOODY. WHITE. SOCKS. UP.
And gulp.
“You must mix history up and drink it down” Mrs.
Raj said in a voice, cold as glass and Seven-Up.
“No, no, no!
ABSOLUTELY NO.
Sleepy heads in class. You go!
GO! And stand outside.
I Decide. This is a circus,
Madness! This is NOT, this IS…
THIS IS HISTORY
CLASS”.
We, the locals, find this funny and laugh.
History for us, like the cannons, is a blast.
Someone who’d been to the ISKL- for a period
As short as a bell -barfed in the back of the class.
The ISKL is the International School of Kuala Lumpur
It is the Upper Class, you and I, are DELETE.
NOT THE ELITE, so love song,
You and I can read
History and Law
But there is not one place INTERNATIONAL, you
And I can go, Love song!
No matter what seeds we sow
The Malay language and elite
Sit on our head
As we row the same boat
“Duduk! Duduk! Duduk! Sit down you clown!”
“But Teacher, Mrs.Raj, you told me to GO!”
“ Yes but you don’t go till I tell you to GO!
“You girls are getting as bold as brass. Don’t think I
Don’t know.” she said, lifting her eyebrows, “What
You are doing outside
THE CLASS.”
Then calming down, “History is a subject you cannot
Afford to reject, the old truths are always there
“Ah yes, teacher, the world is laid bare
But it is not fair, alas! It only belongs to the fair!”
Said one poetic soul whittle thin like a pencil
Boring a hole in a desk.
Drama. Melodrama. That’s one of the girls from Ipoh
Not to sink so low, and mention Michelle Yeoh,
Who also Escaped
Mrs. Raj’s History Class
With James Bond
No Less
Because Tommorow Never Dies
History Never lies.
So many of us go! Love song!
It seems so wrong!
“Not necessarily, you know. History is about old
Souls, not our rice bowls, learn all you can
Spread yourselves out
Become a Red Chinese Fan
Find another land….
The Bell Rang.
History Test is Tommorow, alright GOOD LUCK,
said Mrs. Raj, her voice slipping like sand
In an hourglass, I am leaving THE HISTORY
CLASS.
And You, pull up your socks, don’t be lazy
Or the facts will be hazy.
Don’t Go Outside The Class” said Mrs Raj,
Asking another girl to carry our books
To the garage.
“I won’t go outside the classroom, Teacher!
I’ll stay here and wait for the bridegroom
Mr. Wang is teaching the next class”.
“You girls are getting as bold as brass. Don’t think I
Don’t know.” she said, lifting her eyebrows, “What
You are doing outside
THE CLASS.”
We, the locals, find this funny and laugh.
History for us, like the cannons, is a blast.
