A century later

• ''The school-bell is a call to battle,''
• ''every step to class, a step into the firing-line.''
• ''Here is the target, fine skin at the temple,''
• ''cheek still rounded from being fifteen.''
• ''Surrendered, surrounded, she''
• ''takes the bullet in the head''
• ''and walks on. The missile cuts''
• ''a pathway in her mind, to an orchard''
• ''in full bloom, a field humming under the sun,''
• ''its lap open and full of poppies.''
• ''This girl has won''
• ''the right to be ordinary,''
• ''wear bangles to a wedding, paint her fingernails,''
• ''go to school. Bullet, she says, you are stupid.''
• ''You have failed. You cannot kill a book''
• ''or the buzzing in it.''
• ''A murmur, a swarm. Behind her, one by one,''
• ''the schoolgirls are standing up''
• ''to take their places on the front line.''