do you remember the playground
and its metal beams
extending from the ground like foreign trees
Escher-like contraptions to keep us entertained
stuck a bed of rocks or wood chips
that seemed more dangerous than concrete
the way you would make up games
because its intent got boring
and how you thought climbing up the slide
was the ultimate act of defiance
of self-determination
in a world you didn’t know would get you down
being nervous to climb to the very top of a pole
the summit of this monolith to youth
but trying it anyway
because the idea of being the odd one out was worse
than the thought of the free fall
when you’d fall so fast and so hard on your feet
jumping from a plastic ledge
that a pain so sharp and so consuming
would blossom through your soles and up your calves
and how you thought it was the worst you could hurt
how it would disappear as fast as it came
and you carried on with your play
intertwining with the static structures
yelling to signal carefree content
feeling friends flailing
seeing the sun setting
a tap of a gnat irritating
a call to come back in, an omen
of the ending
and the endings to come