The Green Pool Slide

The concrete, sharp-edged, then the grass,

my little legs just would not pass.

I hit the bottom, a wet flop,

and then the screaming came to stop.

My shorts were torn, a gaping hole,

right where my knee had lost control.

A bright red patch, a tender sting,

and then I saw them gathering.

All the older kids, they saw

my sudden, clumsy, breaking law

of coolness, grace, of being tough.

It felt like it would be enough

to make me disappear right then,

a ghost of scraped and reddened skin.

But one girl, taller, with soft eyes,

she came and wiped away my cries.