Hopscotch

 

I don’t know why that comes to mind except

That it is a game that can be won

And folk all around

Can take it fine

 

It’s

Satisfying quantities of asphalt, chalk, and

Small stones

Congenial lines and arches

A game for friends

A game in which core competition

Is with the self

To jump and stay on balance

 

Dusty chalk

I miss it, maybe you do too

And games whose consequences tend toward

Civility

The garrulous courtesy of children (worth

the risk)

Unlike the fractured day in

A quarreling, gimbaled world

To which I’ve awakened

 

C L Couch