Zoom Call

We are the Zoom call the government should see –

Fifty squares of careworn teacher faces

Each alone in a home office

In the orange glow of evening.

Together we are

A patchwork quilt of

guilt, exhaustion, disbelief.

How has it come to this?

Stories emerge of fraught Heads

Scrabbling to pull funding from thin air,

Of endless marking sparking rage or tears

And fears of being punished or found out,

The young career that never stood a shout of

Getting started.

We are the Zoom call the government should see –

Fifty squares of experience

Worth its weight in gold

Ground down into the dust

And only just now escaping

Into the morning light:

Taking those first steps towards a new life.