School Day

The clang of the bell, an antique gong

ringing amongst standards and apps,

casts doors open with clamour and rush.

Mothers, and fathers, pat and hug,

shy pride disguised in bluff greeting.

Kids silly with giggles, others pensive,

fill the fields with contest for a ball,

dextrous lemurs swarming jungle gyms.

Clouds dissolve to the north,

heat flows from an unmasked sun

in a pledge of nascent summer.

The weekend awaits, but for a short interlude

the streets babble rich with voices,

as denizens trundle homewards,

keen to loosen straps and laces,

to snack, loaf, inhabit the back section.

© Victor Billot