Stand

I read a quote by General
Custer from Custer's Last Stand
from when the Indians were coming
I mean Native Americans
they weren't Indians
they weren't from India because
if they'd come all the way
from India
they'd have probably been knackered because
all had were horses and barefeet.
Arrows and smoke signals too
but you can't travel with those.

Anyway
I heard he saw the Native Americans
coming
with their
horses
barefeet
arrows
and smoke signals
and he said, 'We've got them,'
just like that.
'We've got them.'
Then he got perforated.
I've seen the pictures.
They got painted later but
y'know.

It's like
my old headteacher
Mr Belarus had a squint
and he made us all call him 'Sir'
and he had a painting
of the Last Stand behind his desk
and every time I got called in -
bust pane, backchat, the usual crap -
I'd sit and listen to his percolator's
hubble bubble and I'd eye
the painting and ogle the terror in the cowboys' faces
as Injuns surged over the barricade
like a herd of boorish
football thugs toting tomohawks.
Tomohawks! That was it:
Horses
barefeet
arrows
smoke signals
and tomohawks and anyway
Mr Belarus got sacked after an OFSTED
inspection put our school into
'special measures'
but he wouldn't leave
barricaded himself into his office
and we were all in the playground
clapping and going
OUT
OUT
OUT
and he threw a board rubber
and it gave Mrs Webb a black eye,
cheek powdered white like a countess.