Photo Of Schoolboys Poem by Michael Pruchnicki

Once I saw a photograph
taken by a 71 year old
Japanese tourist
in pre-WW 2 London

Black and white print
of schoolboys with satchels
and shining morning faces
walking briskly down the street
to the brick building -
King Edward IV grammar school
sometime in 1939

The retired entrepreneur from
Yokohama was touring London
when he happened on the scene
and set up his camera

I imagine the chalky teacher
in the classroom and the boys
scrunched over their tasks

I see the lads graduating in due time
and donning Army khaki and RAF blue

I see the Japanese grandfather as his
grandsons land on shores far from home

Boys from London and Yokohama
barely tasting manhood on foreign shores

They lie at peace now