Hide and Seek

When I was little we used to play games in the dark, kick the can, hide and seek, capture the flag.

Everyone played.

Joanie, the little blonde curly top
(I would have killed to have that hair!)
from the top of the street.

Her dad smoked!
And they were Catholic!
And she was an only child!
I ate baloney sandwiches every time I was there for lunch-
Bliss!

The Stevens sisters,
one fat, one skinny,
there were lots of other kids in that house too but we played with them.

Me and my little sister,
the scary big boys from the house
that you couldn't see from the street 'cause of all the overgrown bushes,
the ones that sometimes chased us home after school
for the fun of seeing us scream.

In the dark.

Under the streetlights and in the really black shadows
next to the houses and in the backyards,
all up and down the street.
In the yards of people that had kids and some that didn't.
Whether they wanted us to or not.

I still play games in the dark.