Elastic Days
Listen to Paula ...
Elastic days,
brimming with promise.
School bags gather dust
while we gather possibilities
and string them, jewel-like,
across six weeks.
Net curtains billow,
ushering rose-petal breezes;
summer drifting in
to beckon us out.
Grass cuttings and grazed knees.
My bike,
no longer a wheeled thing
but a living, breathing creature
with mane and tail.
We gallop to the park,
my sister and me.
Free
to do anything
and nothing.
We lie on our backs,
grass prickling our legs,
heads craned to the sky.
And the whole world tilts.
This never-ending summer.
brimming with promise.
School bags gather dust
while we gather possibilities
and string them, jewel-like,
across six weeks.
Net curtains billow,
ushering rose-petal breezes;
summer drifting in
to beckon us out.
Grass cuttings and grazed knees.
My bike,
no longer a wheeled thing
but a living, breathing creature
with mane and tail.
We gallop to the park,
my sister and me.
Free
to do anything
and nothing.
We lie on our backs,
grass prickling our legs,
heads craned to the sky.
And the whole world tilts.
This never-ending summer.
This poem is copyright (©) Paula Thompson 2026
About the Writer
Paula Thompson
Paula is a children’s writer and former newspaper journalist from Hampshire with an MA distinction in Writing for Children. She is a winner of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Undiscovered Voices competition and longlisted as one of London Library’s Emerging Writers 2024/25. Paula’s poetry and fiction for children has featured in various publications in the UK and overseas. She is very excited to be taking flight on The Dirigible Balloon!
