School Furniture, Poem by Paul Arène

Poem by Paul Arène Period 19th century

The school was charming in the days of the cockchafers,
When, through the window open to the spring breezes,
There came, speaking to us of truant schools
And putting madness into our young brains,
Bird cries amid the scents of new-mown hay;
Then, ugly as it was, surely! it knew how to please us,
Our dear furniture so poorly scholastic.
With great strokes of the penknife, working through
The old dusty wood all gnawed by worms,
We hollowed out in every direction suspicious caverns,
Where lodged, watched over by us, heaps of insects:
The black rhinoceros, who carries burdens,
The click beetle, a clown gifted with a spring in his back,
The sly stag beetle, but amiable otherwise,
The weevil, dressed in green gold, and the buprestid…
I was forgetting the water beetle along with the gribouri.

Paul Arène

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