Take-Off Zone

We were the Boys Upon the Roof: the last year
of Rose Lane School, Liverpool, 1964,
no longer grounded, we'd shortly fly
off in different directions.

But we still dutifully wore our ties
and some our black blazers stitched
with a red rose, even though some divested
ourselves of jackets, mugged or brooded



in rolled up white shirtsleeves -- it must
have been spring, warm at last
after another cold dark English winter.
One maverick waved hands and yelled,

"Hey, look at me!" A boy sat Quixotic
on another boy's shoulders -- but
horseplay was ending: more
serious matters to attend to
-- a cruel world awaited.

Christopher T. George

I'm not on this picture which an old school friend sent me. He's the dark-looking guy third from the right. The photo was taken by another schoolmate whose reaquaintance I am making some forty years on.