Dan Wyke
The School Hall
for my brother
Twenty years ago
we sat cross-legged
on the disinfected floor’s
flaking varnish
and sang
Morning Has Broken
at the tops
of our small voices
while hot shivers
shot up our spines
and tickled our scalps
like a breeze.
In vests and shorts,
we swung on the ropes
or spring-boarded
over the wooden horse
before queuing in steam
from boiled greens,
water in battered
metal blue jugs –
which all vanished
in the afternoon,
leaving it large and light
on the long walk
to the Head’s room.
It held spotlit evenings
of nerves and applause;
French kisses in the folds
of thick curtains
at the end of term disco;
and, one sunny day,
after the bell
and the loud exodus,
a man with a wide broom,
sweeping up the dust
as it fell.
Page(s) 14
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