Two years, three years, maybe even four
School left my brain for dead, I'm sorry to report
Another two squandered on a bricklaying course
Before I hit rock bottom and regained my power of thought
Like Tim Timebomb, I was seven years down
Paralysed by angst and a perpetual frown
Music gave me my voice and a solace in sound
Books gave me ideas how to get up off the ground
I struggled and I studied to change my behaviour
I came to understand the revolution as my saviour
Commit to being better through struggle and strife
But I ain't Jimmy Stewart, this ain't "A Wonderful Life"
Now I was never one to view the world with amazement
But an interest in learning was a means of engagement
Education enriches and enlivens the mind
But all I really want now is a way to pass the time

[Scratch]: It's all academic, curio-apathetic

A book over breakfast and a book before bed
Not to sharpen awareness, but just to numb my head
Take me somewhere far away in space and time
Up to Yeavering Bell or to the Orcadian Isles
Then back to my fire-lit den at 4am
To those far-off days back before I turned ten
Back to a past that could never last
Reading Homer and Beowulf and "The Boy With The Bronze Axe"
It's pathetic I know, but I was happier alone
Give me a book and I was sorted, like a dog with a bone
Intellectually flexing while I lay there prone
My ideal adventure, imagination left to roam
World shut out in shadows, sat reading by the fire
A semi-circle of bliss before I sank in the mire
And honest, did it ever get better than that?
Brief hours of isolation, of detachment snatched