Games At Dusk
Street lights Have only just gone on
The mothers' hands
Grope red and soapy among the dishes
Screen doors slam
And we spin across green lawns
Freeze into statues,
Mother, may I? red light, green light
Race down sidewalks,
Break her back
Kick the can and scatter
Into ragweed and briar patches
Crouch in the secrets of our hiding places
Sticky with pollen, gravel-kneed
Snatch at lightning bugs
To make our way, lantern-fisted,
Home through the dark