Recess at Midnight

The bus went by while I was still a block away,

tail lights bleeding into the wet street.

The park is the only path that’s left today,

crunching through the leaves beneath my feet.

The yellow slide is glowing like a tooth

under a bulb that’s buzzing with the rain.

It’s a hollow, plastic monument to youth,

shaking at the end of a rusty chain.

A swing is hitting the metal pole,

clink-clink-clink in a steady, lonely sound.

It sounds like a bell for a tired soul

walking home across the frozen ground.