communal holiday

Communal Holiday.
The holiday home for children
was near a cold lake
flanked by two black mountains
We children swam there
every morning at seven
before the sun warmed the lake.
Breakfast at eight, mainly oatmeal porridge
and stale bread.
Boot camp for children.
Three weeks of this then we were let loose
to roam a town of summer dust
and trees in the park we could climb up
to get away from adults
who had forgotten their own childhood.