Night Time
The bell rings for the end of school.
I head home, stuff down a biscuit
jump on my bike and ride to funmaker park.
Teatime, wonderful food aromas.
In the kitchen, ravenous family rhinos
share their daytime adventures.
Sunset’s fiery glow slowly sinks
into the distance. Citrus orange sun,
pinkly gleaming, relaxes with me
as I slip into bed. I slide on my silky pyjamas
and creep into the cool dream-seeker.
Before I go to sleep, I enter
a fairytale land where knights,
tall and grand, rescue people.
The moon shimmers its pearly glow
in through my window. Burrowing
into my bedclothes, I wait for night,
drifting and dozing as I travel into dreamland.
Angela Topping 
Hi Angela,
I read ‘Night Time’ at the weekend and find that something about the poem has now drawn me back to it. Perhaps it’s the first stanza, which reminds me of my schooldays half a century ago. Perhaps the comical rendering of a familiar scene in the phrase “…ravenous family rhinos / share their daytime adventures.” Perhaps the idea of the sun r-e-l-a-x-I-n-g with me as I slip into bed.
Whatever, for me the poem has a certain afterglow. And this, far more than any flashy phrase-making, is surely what matters. So well done to the children of Romiley Primary School…and to their wonderful mentor!
Paul