Je suis, j’habite, je m’appelle
Écoute, c'est Carol ...
I sit here in my salle de classe,
crayon in my hand,
cahier on my desk
only half listening
to the French lesson,
to les élèves chanting
the seasons. Aujourd’hui
la neige tombe
and I watch it
through the window
and wish I could run out
into it, bury myself
like a flapping snow angel.
I imagine a girl
in France somewhere
watching it fall,
the way the flakes twirl
and dance, not listening
to the professeur
or the rest of her class
repeating I am, I live, I am called.
crayon in my hand,
cahier on my desk
only half listening
to the French lesson,
to les élèves chanting
the seasons. Aujourd’hui
la neige tombe
and I watch it
through the window
and wish I could run out
into it, bury myself
like a flapping snow angel.
I imagine a girl
in France somewhere
watching it fall,
the way the flakes twirl
and dance, not listening
to the professeur
or the rest of her class
repeating I am, I live, I am called.
This poem is copyright (©) Carole Bromley 2024
About the Writer
Carole Bromley
Carole was born in Middlesbrough in the UK and lives in York. She has had pamphlets and collections published and has also won a number of competitions, including the Bridport, the Yorkshire Open, Torbay, Poetry Space and the Bronte Society Literary Prize. Her poems for children have been published in The Caterpillar, in her collection, Blast Off! and in anthologies from MacMillan and Emma Press. She was the winner of the 2022 Caterpillar Prize. Carole will be tutoring a course on writing poems for children at the Garsdale Retreat in October 2024
