POETRY DAY

iNTERLUDE AT THE FOUNTAIN

Cooling jets of water flaunt their flowing liquidity

Tinkling their melodies of eternal optimism

Children dance through shimmering rainbows

Coated in silver wonder they play

“Tag, you’re it,” cries a joyous voice

Pattering footsteps displace mercurial ponds

Frayed ponytail whips around, tickling a pert nose

Running pell-mell to catch the blonde escapee

Taunting little brother narrowly evading her grasp

Their game carries on a cycle of generations lost and found

Mothers new and old chat on the surrounding benches

Watching their young charges as they speak of life

“Did you hear about Gloria’s sister?”

“You won’t believe what Franny’s boy Pete did today…”

Humanity’s interactions, always flowing, rarely ceasing

Eyes brimming with knowing humor crinkle at the antics displayed

As a ruddy faced matron stretches arthritic extremities

Allowing darting needles to still from their task for a moment

As a colorful blanket of soft woven yarn being created below

Whispers a silken sigh of relief and settles into an ample lap

A new mother anxiously gasps her worry

As her fragile offspring slips on an acorn

Carelessly discarded by the nearby oak

Sighing with relief as the child resumes his play

Never noticing the anxious parental concern

Women chatting of life and love, husband and kids

They worry about the bills or paying the rent

Still, each mother pauses occasionally, wistfully watching

As carefree children recall to mind their own days

Splashing in the fountain and chasing the rainbow

And for a short eon in the vastness of Always

Before returning to the concerns of existence

They turn back the clock and exist once more

In life’s circuitous game of “Tag, you’re it.”