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poetry: playing games

open and shut them
a game with toddlers
to still their hands
to make them giggle
I play it in my head
to still my fears
open and shut them
ambulance out the window
stretcher in the hall
two paramedics in blue
electrodes on his chest
it’s not like last time
give a little clap, clap, clap
take me back to stillness
no ripples spreading out
just flat glassy ease
a breath and a sigh
open and shut them
pajama pants, slip-on shoes
home before sunrise
coffee while he sleeps
hugs when he wakes
put them in your lap, lap, lap

31 thoughts on “poetry: playing games”

  6. hmm.. I still think you’re a better writer than you think you are. Case in point, your first six lines alone are stronger than the greater whole (your draft). What those lines do not say implies all the more intensity unelaborated. Moving from a child’s game to fear inside your head, That gives me chills. And the distance is so short the reader has no time to see the ending coming, thus all the more energy. But that’s just me. I celebrate that you do write and only encourage more.

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    • Thank you, Neil. I see that and perhaps I should trust brevity more. I think I wanted to use more of the nursery rhyme, particularly the line “give a little clap, clap, clap.” I wanted to not leave the poem with the feeling of fear but move through it to a sense of relief.

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      • Sometimes I think not all fears need be resolved. Fear is a valid emotion. That’s not saying is should be banished, only accepted. It has a place to be appreciated. Poems enough “next” to do nursery rhymes. But again, that’s My sense of language.

        After my last “monster” (of necessity) I need renew my relationship with brevity as well.

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