A baby stump went to school for the first time on the first day-
-With his seasoned timber father.
The teacher looked like an axe.
The school looked like a mill.
His father told him there was nothing to be afraid of.
The process was all conventional.
Baby stump first learned how to repeat.
He repeated the names of his subjects-
-Which were very elaborate for our friend.
He was lucky to receive an education of the highest order.
The teacher made him sit beside another bright stump-
-Who had been half chiseled already.
Baby stump shaped on quickly in his lessons.
He was good at budding, leaf-caring and grafting.
He was taught all the traditional wisdom’-
-The oriental conventions-
-And the orthodox procedures of becoming an educated stump.
With every touchstone, Baby Stump was chiseled-
-Little by little.
When he went to school that morning-
-He was a bright young thing like we used to be.
When he came out of school that afternoon-
-He was a chiseled piece of timber, who knew it too well to repeat.
He was perfectly perfect in repeating all the same conventions of centuries.
Yet he thought himself to be different.
Baby Stump then gave Entrance Tests-
-and went to a reputed Lumberjack school.
He shined in everything he did.
He still shines as a furniture in my living room.
The Beautifully Grotesque 