Assembly

'Here we sit like birds in the wilderness'.

We sang droll rhymes, inappropriate
to our time of change.

Parquet polished to millimetre of joint,
Victorian squints for education framed
in separate access for skirt or shorts,

tight lipped, we shuffle-bummed
into pre-set place.

That was the year when you accepted transit
to a whole. Parted through tectonic shift,
economies, wars and ideologies.

Bludgeoned by urbanities;
parliamentary wit, a decimal point
to point a brighter future.

But a call to his study,
with my socks at half mast
harked to conflict,
quarter century past.

'Where does your mother come from' he asked

and I lied.

I had been taught to survive
prejudice of terraced lines.

Brick dust from doodle bugs
had not yet settled.