with my elbow on the windowsill.
I see a woman cleaning classroom windows
in the building opposite mine.
I am instinctively transported to my time in school –
the carbolic smell of corridors
the chalky aroma of classrooms
still in my nostrils;
the lustrous, shiny blackboard
still in my eyes,
and there is the first girl I ever loved!
I pick flowers for her,
bind them in a garland and clasp it,
I present it to her;
she ruthlessly shoves it in my face,
the roar of the jeering crowd
still ringing in my ears.