Playground
Wash the dishes, dry the dishes,
turn the dishes over.
Chant the rhyme, jump the rope,
skip with friends and keep in time.
Butterfly-butterfly, turn right around.
Butterfly-butterfly, now touch the ground.
Ice-cream, soda pop, cherry red on the top.
Mind the moment, bob and bounce.
Who’s your best friend? Let’s find out:
ABCDEFG… Be aware, try not to trip
while the cord still throbs, for soon
the school bell rings and playtime done.
Cherries may be bitter-sweet,
bubbling soda lost its fizz, dishes broken,
butterflies all flown so far away,
the skipping-rope thrown into dust.
Life is twine, twisting, turning,
often over, sometimes under,
sometimes low, or twirling higher.
On we skip and take our turn
in line, or briefly swing the string
in full command — or so we think.
Choose a friend who turns the rope,
and sets the height we get it right.
New Zealand born Mary Trim, who writes as Marye Trim, has a PhD in English Literature (Loughborough, UK, 1998) and studied journalism at the University of Queensland, Australia. She has authored five published books and hundreds of inspirational articles, stories and poems and was a newspaper columnist for nine years, while also working as missionary teacher in India and Thailand. She feels called to writing ministry and sees herself as akin to those “Out of Zebulon, they who handle the pen of the writer” (Judges 5:14).
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
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