a child of thirteen stands in the precinct,
joined by two more who stand by her side,
they move, but they do not speak,
as if summoned by supernatural wifi,
soon there are fifteen children of
various genders and gender identities
dressed for school, for the Prom, for the party
beneath the trees, beside the dog-waste bins
across municipal gardens, they greet each
other with coded smiles of silent knowing
they move in eddies, oldsters point and ask,
pollen drifts, sun sets in bloody skyfire
around the world, in parks, squares, green spaces,
a generational signal, interpreted instinctually,
thousands of children, millions across continents,
they move in swirls of mass migration,
they follow down DNA genetic triggers
tides of children move towards the shores
across the beach strands and into the waves,
to submerge, limbs dissolve into glisten-smooth
seal-bodies, laughing and surging into
teeming aquatic shoals, until the ripples fade
and every child on Earth is transfigured… gone
.
Andrew Darlington
.