The Writing on the Wall by Jeannie Wallace McKeown

We’ve seen the writing on the wall
people say, and they pack up
their families, and all their belongings
(except for, often, the family pets
which are left in overcrowded shelters)
and they leave for Australia or Canada or the UK

There are great waves of such emigrations:
each time the writing appeared clearly on the wall
to some.

In between the emigrations are the immigrations.
People come back.
Back from Australia, Canada and the UK
to the green grass of home
and what does the writing say then?

Now again people are saying they can see it;
nowhere else in the world
looks particularly palatable though.
I wonder how many will go,
how many will stay;
how many will return
after a suitable period has elapsed.

Jeannie Wallace McKeown writes poetry and prose creatively; works at a desk in a university but has also been a freelance writer for the past six years covering academic lectures, seminars, book launches and interviewing interesting people; has had creative pieces published in literary journals and online.