Oh, The Horror!

• Elizabeth Pillidge, Grade 12
• Poetry
• 2013

Clawing my knuckles, biting my lips
Memorising the abyss’s every corner,
I shiver, I’m sweating
Why can I not keep myself in order?
I munch away, tasting nothing but saliva
A thousand thoughts gallivanting on the brain-train,
A cackling kookaburra alfresco, sans a care in the world
How I wish I could chortle away the pain.
I gobble, I quaff
But nothing can ease these mental throes,
For this is true horror, the inevitable pitfall
“Next!” the examiner yells, my call to hell
Orals are my nightmare, can I now just take a doze?