Close Only Counts in Horse Shoes and Hand Grenades (07/2007)

Children laughing, playing together
over a game of Aggravation
The Object is not to lose your marbles.
stay safe.
find home.

Roll... two steps here.. 6 there..
"Home! I made it Home!"
Roll again, jump to the center
"I got one! I'm safe! I win!"
Then, "awwwww"
& cries of "Do over!" fill the room

When you leave childhood,
that privilege is left behind
but the Object stays the same
not to Lose Your Marbles.
stay Safe.
find Home.

in this year
there are too many dark moments
hours where
I struggle for anything to hold onto
some requirement to keep me here
things to require that
I stay

As my soul sits
rocks
curled in on itself
wretched in dispair
I hear them crying out -
laughing, full of life
indignant, but sure of respite
"Do over!"

and I
I whisper a hopeless plea into empty
space
as though now that I'm an adult
respite might still exist.
it is swallowed up
in space and silence:

"Do over"

~~07/2007