“do you remember” by Madeleine Chan

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