Rumours

18/10/2020 - Poem a Day Compilation



There wasn’t much to the story

We were on a camp with school

It rained and rained and rained some more

The paddock looked more like a pool.



We couldn’t pitch a tent out that night

The only dry place was a shed

It had been used as a feed store

And the hay loft became our bed



The boys all slept in their tents

That they put up on the dry floor

While the teachers and we girls

Were high above the snore



We piled all the bags between us

Like the great wall of china

It was a masterpiece of engineering

You would not find any finer



The next day the sun came out to play

And we hiked up the mountain higher

Where we could camp outside

And we could even light a fire



One by one the students took to bed

In their tents and sleeping bags

One last night away from home

And parents with constant nags



It must have been getting late

When I realized we were alone

Just myself and two teachers

And the conversation took a different tone



It was as if they forgot I was a student

And they talked about normal things

Like what they were doing on the weekend

Or how much they liked chicken wings



I took myself off to the tent

I was sharing with the other girls

And I was asked such questions

That would make you clutch your pearls



The rumours that they started

Were ridiculously untrue

They were simply causing trouble

For someone with friends too few



But it wasn’t just me they hurt

With their words and their lies

The teachers caught up in it all

Could not escape the fictitious ties



It spread on the bus trip home

From students to parents and more

The principal heard the gossip

And it was something he could not ignore



We had to give a full account

Of every moment we were together

It tore me apart inside

And my sanity hung by a tether

The principal knew we’d done nothing wrong

But the scandal had reached the press

The teachers were stood down from their roles

For a lie and nothing less



I was an outcast amongst my peers

And the rumours grew from time to time

While I shrank inside myself

Though I had committed no crime



The school year ended without fan fair

And I retreated to the shadows

Never to see those girls again

Their jealousy had caused such vicious blows



But what they did lingers on

And haunts me to this day

I still blame myself for not seeing

That they could act that way



Their petty lies destroyed my faith

That people could ever be trusted

And the lives of the teachers they slandered

Were irrevocably busted