The high stools closest to the window
were the most highly-prized
perched teetering on the end of the physics lab bench
I often felt like a condemned pirate awaiting the drop.
Bad enough to be stifling hot
school blazers had to stay on, ties too
and the intricate secrets of
the coefficient of thermal expansion
persistently avoided my half-hearted grasp.
But at half past two, every Wednesday,
on the netball court outside room 10
there she was
Lesley, the school goddess
first one out the changing rooms as usual,
spray-on shorts half the size of anyone else’s
two or three bounces nearer
and then a pause,
now no more than ten feet away
ball between her knees
pin between pursed lips
capturing some errant wisps of hair
midriff bare
an unobtainable beauty
a fourth-year, me a pitiable second.
Amid the daydream of her pert breasts
those long perfectly shapely legs
angelic face and knowing smile
it dawned on me
there and then
locked in for eternity,
how the size of an object changes
with a change in temperature,
measuring the fractional change in size
per degree change in temperature
at a constant pressure.
Thank you Leslie!
© Graham Sherwood 07/2018
grahamrichardsherwood.co.uk 