Poetry

Ross Donlon: The Last Day

The Last Day Form 5 Photograph Fort Street Boys’ High School, Sydney, 1962   Here we are (or were) on the school steps. Our prefects, seated in front with the principal a set of seated sphinx, fists parked on knees, seem older than us standing behind them, the less assured of future degrees and girls. Academic rank and promise both decline as rows climb steps until the bottom is top. Haloes above front row boys also fade with altitude and attitude, slip at rakish angles over smirks and smiles, morph into question marks on clowns and fools, and those whose…

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