10. Commercial Three B

C  is for "cal" we get every week,
O  for obedience, for which teachers shriek,
M  for mistakes we make all the time,
M  for the methods we think are a crime,
E  for the errors we make when we type,
R  is our rate, which is never quite right,
C  for the callous we get from the seat,
I  for ideas not very discreet,
A  to abolish our shorthand distress,
L  for the lessons we get in excess.

T  for the trouble we have every day,
H  for our hair which is going so gray,
R  for the rules by which we abide,
E  for exams we take in our stride,
E  for excuses of which I have none,

B  for the best poem that I have done.

Comments:  Just before World War II, my future father met my future mother in the one-year course, Commercial Three B.  And, his hair was already going gray - at the ripe old age of 18.

9. The Student's Complaint

Why must you set exams so long
That even the most speedy one
Is still unfinished when the gong
Announces that the time is gone?

We try and try to satisfy,
And labour at our work until
You think we're surely going to die,
But still we never beat that bell.

So take a little pity on
The ones who do the writing, then
It will be no phenomenon
To see a few more smiles again.

Comments:  This was another piece penned for the student newspaper.