the school gates

by Karan Chambers

They stream through –   

a wave of bright blue,  

crashing. Here  

and there one tries to fight 

the tide, clinging desperately  

to arm or leg — reluctance  

in every line. A butterfly topped 

braid wobbles, bobbing 

up and down above shaking 

shoulders: driftwood amid 

dragging current. There’s so much here 

that’s unfamiliar. Adult faces  

too are uncertain — what if nothing 

ever changes? We're all marked; 

seeing history reflected 

in small faces, wanting 

so much to be different  

for them. I watch you, hesitant  

but swept along. I hold

my breath as you swim 

out of sight. 

Karan Chambers is a poet, English tutor, and mum to three boys. She studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and has been previously published by The Mum Poem Press, The 6ress, and The Winnow Magazine.