Inside Outside

Inside Outside (9th June 2008, 3.38pm)

Raised voices echo outside,
screams and shouts
drift across the asphalt
up to the open windows,
forcing our attention to stray,
reaching like promises
as we read, silently,
waiting for our own break
to lift inside day
into outside freedom.

Clear on still, summer air slide
sounds of games,
played laughter trickles like
water purling through the room;
we are studying words hard:
class novel, digging holes
in our heads as time unravels
slow; like a rattlesnake
poised, the hand creeps
around the tired clock face.

No words are heard distinctly,
wrapped in veils
of distance travelled and
longing. Concentration
frays; we plan our small escapes
out into the haze of
outside noise, unravelling
summer days of stuffy rooms
and muffled freedom
into sunlight and space.