On the school field, layered over playtime,
A one-night village of camper vans and nylon.
12-berth citadels and two-man squeezers
Pop-up tents like bubble-gum balloons
A view of shifting greens, a pre-school collage
Of fields and hedges, trees in light and shade
A British summer's evening: we'll have rain.
Bingo, burgers, baps; pre-hoodie kids
Kick balls and swarm and scatter, spread among
Our camping chairs, cold beer and easy talk.
Year sixes bind. Friend to friend, intense,
Afraid of summer's leap to their next school.
Night strolls quietly in. From boxes, children
Break out light sticks, snap alive their glow,
Trade colours and connectors, build their gear:
Bracelets, earrings, necklaces and belts.
Hurdling guy ropes, now they stream away
Towards a distant, thicker darkness where,
Untethered, indiscernible, they hurl
Up high their spinning neon rings,
As though to cast their very spirits free.
To see it stills me; I will keep this safe.
Disco man has sorted out the sounds
His green light's on, he lets the music out
“Tonight's gonna be a good night”, swells the sweet
And knowing promise of the Black Eyed Peas.
I've got that feeling too, it picks me up
And takes me barefoot to the dance-grass where
I shake a shot of pleasure through my limbs
And feel the small emerging child in me
Whoop and loop the loop and hurl my hoops
Of vivid living colour to the sky.
17.7.11
Louise Ordish
Louise Ordish
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