Observations at park

...

mother with child

restrained impatience

the kid wants to swing

I have other things to do

I tap my foot, push the

swing

it doesn't go any faster, this

time thing

I watch around me, the 

other kids,

a man or two,

no prospects so far

I push the kid

...

they've chained a picnic table 

to a tree

surely, so the tree doesn't

get away

...

a man sits on a bench like

a lump

waiting for lump stimulus

actually, "waiting" is too active a word

to describe him

mind apathy

...

it takes

all kinds

and it takes little squirrels digging

holes in the ground to

safeguard their nuts

out here, the nuts roam

freely, and we

increasingly accept them as

the norm

generally, our "stretch of imagination"

shortens

our need for external preoccupation

lengthens like soft shadows

near sunset

such, the light soon fades and 

all is "without"

save for the spark of joy from the

imagination of a child playing in

nature, a bright chid, announcing her discovery

of the back of her hand amid the

polite nodding from an 

uninterested grandfather - his

grandsons are playing after all

this bright child creates 

the world

she sits next to grandpa, 

you can feel her comfort

how often are we this close

to such bounty and 

realize it?

he lies back on the slide

she mimics

and he is still unaware

unbeknownst to him she

brings him comfort

the grandsons challenge, test

she connects

it takes all kinds

Author's Note

Written 7-29-09