Written as a quick series of snapshots, "Unsupervised lesson" drops us into a classroom where the teacher is missing and everything has fallen apart. Furniture is broken, glass flies past the speaker's head, and bags and jackets are held "hostage" in petty trades. When a teacher arrives, the room goes silent at once, and the pupils' "guiltily honest faces" give a polite excuse about photocopying. The moment she leaves, the riot starts again.
The speaker seems to be an observer caught in the middle rather than a ringleader. They are knocked over, nearly hit, and surrounded by shouting. The short, abrupt lines mimic the speed and confusion of the scene, with no punctuation-heavy pauses to let us catch our breath. There is dark humour in "Thank God we're on the fourth floor," which treats a girl leaping from a window as a lucky escape. The mood is tense, comic and slightly frightening, and the final line, "I should really get out of here," ends it with understated, wry good sense.