The Full Stop Day

A crying child is surrounded by numbers and a crown as he counts down the last hours of the last day at primary school.

Last six hours of primary school
Goodbye is getting near
The sums and sentences all done
The full stop day is here

Last five hours of primary school
Where everything's before
The aims and games and crazes
no one’s crazy for no more

Last four hours of primary school
Surrounded by a class
who'll scatter soon and not return
when summer’s days have passed

Last three hours of primary school
One final lunchtime play
Instead of chasing friends we try
to chase and catch the day

Last two hours of primary school
The clock hands blur and skid
Signing shirts, remembering
the coolest things we did

Last one hour of primary school
where teachers understood
And helped me see I could achieve
for they believed I could

Last half hour of primary school
The assembly we all dread
We cannot sing - us Year Six kings
The crown slips from our heads

Last ever second of primary 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 time is right -
To leave our wonder years

©2009 Mark Bird