You’re a Long Way From Home (Part 3)

Even to his own ears, his words were losing meaning
These narratives of dispossession
Of alienation, of violent resentment
Resonates so strongly in modern popular youth culture
Precisely because youth experience is replete
Without rage, powerlessness
He thought there'd be a lectern, like back at his uni
Instead the pimpled green government-issued plastic
Of the chair under him mockingly squeaks
Timed like a masterly fart to refute his analysis
The only faces still looking at him glaring patronising glee
Most don't even care to see his undoing
This voiceless, unarticulated rage
More potent precisely because it remains dumb
Permeates the lyrics of modern rap artists
Around him, in the busted filth of the classroom
The circle of students seems to form
Into one late adolescent face of sneered rejection
"You calling 2Pac dumb?" says the face
Their teacher, who invited him all the way out here to speak
Immediately stands up
But they didn't need their sixteen or seventeen years of education
In threat to sense the man's long-defeated anger
Outside, from the carpark reserved for guests to the school
He can faintly hear the almost routine scratching of Duco
"You're a long way from home, brainy boy"