Slice of Life/Day in a Poem (Day 16): Playscape Observations

(This is for the Slice of Life challenge, hosted by Two Writing Teachers. We write on Tuesdays about the small moments in the larger perspective and then all through March — every single day  …  You write, too.)

Winds push uneven swings
forward on rusty grooves,
grinding to a music of metal
etched on metal;

a slide, half-attached on hinge
and bent at an awkward angle,
one leg completely collapsed;

monkey bars, dangerous
to even look at from this angle,
thin and rusted through:

This long-abandoned
sculpture of play, mottled blue,
at rest in a neighbor’s yard

Peace (in observation),
Kevin

4 Comments
  1. I am so glad to learn this is not on a school playground somewhere! I could hear the metal on metal with the wind and was waiting for the sounds of kids. Thankful there weren’t any as the full picture came into focus.

  2. What is it about play structures…or sculptures of play that make them look so precarious. Especially those of the back yard variety! “grinding to a music of metal etched on metal” I can hear that melody!

  3. Such great imagery! Although as adults we are somewhat skittish about play structures, which one of us as a child has not delighted in the rush of wind through our hair, or the sense of speed, or the thrill of jumping off a swing in mid-arc?

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