Fountian Of Youth

Arms spread
Like eagles wings
Open hands
To catch the jetstreams

Shrieking, laughing,
Running, spinning,
Dancing, shouting,
Jumping, grinning

Drenched black locks
And golden curls
Smiles like troves
Of tiny white pearls

Droplets
Cling to lashes and hair
The sun
Casting rainbows into the air

As, joyful,
They jump and dance and dart
The joy is projected
From their small hearts

Heads filled with nothing
But thoughts of their play
They don’t have to think
Past the delights of today

I smile at their innocence,
Watching them giggle and twirl
My heart lifted by the simple content
Of little boys and girls

I wrote this while sitting in a bookstore café
Watching children play in the outdoor ‘fountain’
Across the street, where water was spurting up from jets in
Different places in a circle of the cobblestones and the laughter drifted over
From the ring they had created in an attempt to keep the water down
By standing on as many of the jets as possible…