Transition, by Rachel Burrows

Oct 2, 2024

Screenshot of the poem. The words "spinning in frantic circles" are spaced out and indented: It’s the small things I’ll miss. / Like book quiz on Mondays / and chips on Friday. / Cricket with Wiji – everyone cheering! / And ukuleles. // The guinea pig weeing on Alfie. // It’s the small things I’ll miss. // Like the chickens coming into class, / scooping them up / and snuggling into / their warm featheriness, / returning them to their coop / … and laughing as they fly out again. // I will miss pond-dipping in the sun, on our tummies. / Catching dragonfly larvae – fearless and hungry. / Looking for newts hiding in weeds. / Watching the whirligig beetles / spinning / in / frantic circles. // Small things. // I will miss all that. // And I will miss being big. // Taking messages, / doing tours, / assembly music, / reading buddies. // We won’t do that in September. / We won’t be big in autumn. // We’ll be the whirligigs – / the newts – / small things in a big pond. // We will be dragonfly larvae.

 

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Rachel Burrows has loved writing ever since her Three Little Pigs got a gold star in Year 2 – that’s about 45 years ago! She works in a school by day, and writes in the evening. Her work can be found in The Dirigible Balloon and Northern Gravy. Her poem ‘Orcadia’ was recently The Yorkshire Times’ Poem of the Week and will appear, alongside her artwork, in an anthology called Sky Surfing at the end of the year.