Amberwood Park

I'm tired but still want to post. So here is the first poem I ever wrote for my poetry class. It was the one that I revised the most and the one I entered into the contest. I did not win, but that is okay. Enjoy!



Amberwood Park


We decide to clog the chute.
I lie horizontally across,
and fight the slippery plastic surface.
Eight kids below me, more and more adding above me.
We giggle.
A boy slips,
No! Push against the sides!
He slips,
then gives.
Like dominoes, one body strikes another.


I see something new,a white and red sign,
that tells everyone that this place is a park.
The fields, basketball courts, and playground are the same, but
rules and regulations now exist that did not yesterday.
“Dogs must always be on a leash.”
My dogs and I move past the sign. Kids play
in and around the chute that used to be mine.
“Grounder!” a kid calls.
“You’re it!”
A girl flies through the air.
She smacks her body to the pole and balances
on a small circle of cement.
She challenges back,
“I wasn’t touching the ground.
Not it!”
My dogs and I walk on
until we reach a fenced in spot where
the grass grows in patches.
I let the leashes go
and observe their legs charge
across the field.


Late, late one Thanksgiving night,
I storm towards the park, smarting from the family quarrel,
and clenching my car keys.
I twist in the swing and drag my feet through the sand.
My lungs fill with air.
I stare at the empty chutes, barren fields, and blank sidewalks.
Suddenly
My skin prickles. My stomach tightens.
Cockroaches scurry.
No one is there.
No one will grab me and drag me into the deep shadows
cast by the trees.
No one will hear me scream.
No one will hear my feet
slap on the sidewalk, my loud breathing,
or the latch on the lock thudding home.