After the children had gone

Saint Andrew's Day here soon, in Scotland - and here is today's entry from the pictured 2018 compilation ...

... a short poem by Robin Robertson, about the old Royal High School building on Calton Hill:


The Royal High School

After the children had gone
the gulls came, in a white flit:
sentinel at windows,
falling between buildings.
The janitors and cleaners never saw them
dropping in: ambling down corridors,
looking into rooms, blinking
at their new estate.
They nest here now, among the jotters
and pencils, unopened boxes
of The Scottish Constitution;
living like kings
on a diet of silverfish,
long-life milk and chalk.

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Robin Robertson (1955 - )

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