Prompt: “Two for Tuesday”: Write a “clean” poem or write a “dirty” poem.
URBAN PLAYGROUND
On my block
trees were few and far
between, caged for
their own good,
roots straining against
concrete manacles for
freedom.
Dirt was plentiful, manmade
— soda cans, candy wrappers,
cigarette butts, lottery tickets
— nothing that could nurture
a seedling or spark the
imagination.
An abandoned, brick-strewn lot
was our playground, perfect
for freeze tag, cops & robbers,
manhunt… escape for some,
practice for others.
We played stickball in the street
dodging between parked and
moving cars, playing the bounce
off a windshield or fire escape,
sliding into the manhole cover
that doubled as home plate
in an exuberant cloud of
blissful ignorance.
NOTE: This is Tuesday’s poem, posted just after midnight! Again!
2009 Poem-A-Day Challenge: The inimitable Robert Brewer — editor of Writer’s Market and Poet’s Market, and proprietor of the wonderful blog, Poetic Asides — is posting a daily prompt and I, along with numerous others, are commiting to write a poem inspired by that prompt.
Every. Day.
Full rules and info can be found here.
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