Play

From all the blows I have had
Nothing compares to a stab
In the back.
I want to return
To the time of
Endless blacktop
That scorches with the
Summer heat.
With castles made of
The sweets we eat.
To the time where
Chalk tattoos were
All the rage.
Drawing pictures of
Fearless heroines
And courageous heroes
Their muscular frames
Draped with spandex.
But all in the end
The stick figures we drew
Never had those muscles.
We were always the first to
Fall the first to cry and the last to care.
The world was our playground
And we wanted to play.
We used to play in castles made of coarse sand
Houses made of bright snow
And forts made up of tenacious branches.
We all looked up at the sky
With giant bright eyes.
And marveled at the birds
Their wings stretched, feathers flowing.
We wished we were them.
Free and always bound to the sky.
The bright blue mass we saw
Above drizzled with radiant diamonds.
Our head cast up with the thought of
Being able to achieve.
Our wings appeared and we fell into the sky.
Let us go back there, you and I.
As most birds do we flew south.
Because we no more
Liked frosting on the ground
The sweet candies that we found
The lost games we used to play
Under the night sky
And the fervid light of day.
Lets just play.
Lets go back there, you and I.
Before we learned how to fly.