Playground

PLAYGROUND
by Adrian Mitchell
this poem was written during the invasion of Irak in 2003.

Playground

dark brown eyes
scanning dusty tarmac
a boy on a swing

head down
mouth humming
a boy swinging intensely

before dust he must go
to his grandmother's house
on the edge of the city

alone on a swing
thinking on a swing
a boy

his mother will stay home
she won't go to the shelter
people here are afraid of shelters
they remember last time

the chains of the swing
they clang they creak
the boy's head fills
with explosions

a boy on a swing

by Adrian Mitchell.