The delights of growing up
are highly overrated
Giggles behind clammy hands.
Stiff skirt, five petticoats.
Only this morning ‘they’ –
on the other side of the hall –
wore short pants and dirty faces.
In their Sunday best and
awkward stance they’ve become aliens.
Some are still drifting.
Imagine the teacher at her shrill,
most schoolmarm best:
“Boys to the right, girls to the left.
Choose your partners.
Foxtrot please, band…”
A German-born UK national, Rose Mary Boehm lives in Lima, Peru. Author of three poetry collections, her work has been widely published, mainly in the US. Her latest full-length poetry MS will be published by Blue Nib in 2020.
atriumpoetry.com 