Making Fun - March 24 2022

 

Making Fun

March 24 2022

The schoolyard was tired grass

with patches of bare brown earth.

Asphalt, that may have been once

flat and black and smooth

but now is broken, cracked, faded.

Where stagnant puddles remained

after dark rainy days,

while it was too hot to touch

on warm sunny ones.

The swing set was rusted

monkey bars unsafe.

A chain link fence

leaned badly,

ragged holes in the mesh

exposed sharp galvanized wire.

But this is where we played.

Where we invented games

chased girls

made fun.

Like poor kids everywhere

we didn't know any better.

And our world was small,

contained in this second rate playground

a stuffy schoolroom

a cramped house,

the daily route

to and from school.

I recently returned.

How small it looks

30 years later.

But how little else has changed.

The grass is still ratty.

It still needs repaving.

And kids

in bright winter jackets

still play,

whooping and hollering

and chanting skipping songs.

30 years on,

when it would be nice

not to know any better.

To chase after girls

hoping not to catch them.

Make fun

by simply imagining.

Be happy

just being outside.

To live in the moment

and be satisfied.