Downhill momentums

Do you remember running
downhill so fast as a kid
thin knees knocking
together like sticks
too quick to balance?
Your feet fall behind you
with two long last steps;
the blood runs down
shins and elbows, like
water out of the pool.
It hasn’t changed, only
now the pavement is
deadlines and duties;
we bleed money, or stress,
running down the sides
of our children and loves.
If there was a soft yard
an easy way to land
that would not scrape us—
we’d always take it.
That too hasn’t changed
though soft yards seem fewer
and sometimes sharp things
hide in the grass.








May 2019