The Full Stop Day

Last six hours of Lower School

Goodbye is getting near,

The sums and sentences are all done

The full stop day is here.

 

Last five hours of Lower School

Where everything's before,

The aims and games and crazes

No one’s crazy for no more.

 

Last four hours of Lower School

Surrounded by a class,

Who'll scatter soon and not return

When summer’s days have passed.

 

Last three hours of Lower School

One final lunchtime play,

Instead of chasing friends we try

To chase and catch the day.

 

Last two hours of Lower School

The clock hands blur and skid,

Signing shirts, remembering

The coolest things we did.

 

Last one hour of Lower School

With teachers who understood,

And helped me see I could achieve

Because they believed I could

 

Last ever minute of Lower School

The full stop rings in our ears,

But a thousand chapters left to write

We must vacate our childhood site,

For time moves on and the time is right. 

To leave our wonder years!

 

Mark Bird (adapted)