a comfy little man

There were many boys and girls of my generation who did not get the new bike they had been promised, because they had failed the 11+ examination.  Some people wrote them off.  Others, however, ensured they got a second chance. 

he’s a comfy little man
with a comfy little wife
a comfy little house 
and a comfy little life

he wasn’t always comfy
indeed, quite the reverse
and his later schooling
only made it worse

“you really won’t amount to much”
his teachers all agree
they often used talk like that 
in 1963

he got a job quite easily
all his friends did too
they never lined up cap-in-hand  
they never had to queue

just mindless repetition
enough for clothes and stuff
eventually it dawned on him
that this was not enough

he walked into an evening class
after work one day
and met a kindly tutor
from the WEA*

the tutor looked at him and said
“you know, it seems to me -
you might get some benefit
from university”

finally at 26
he cut the ties that bind
he went off to that big school
and left the rest behind

a mortar board upon his head,
a gown and a degree
a world of endless choice 
and possibility

a grown-up job - a fun one too
it took him far and wide
but he was never on his own
- that schoolboy by his side

he bought himself a brand new bike
by way of celebration
‘cos anything is possible
with an education

* WEA: the Workers Education Association, set up in 1903 with the aim of “promoting Higher Education for the Working Man”.  (And women).  They still do.