The children play blithely

Amid tall, plastic pagodas

Rising stately from a wood-chip sea.

Little sneakers pummel steps upward,

Darting across the bridge.

Tumbling through shadowed tunnels,

They wing down the spiral slide.

Freely shrieking,

(in voices not heard at home)

They chase the smallest one,

Pretending to be monsters.

Can they all go down the slide at once?

Apparently so;

The jumble of three lands laughing

As wood-chips scatter.

There is shouting and gasping...

Yes, let's do that again!

They spot the sandbox and to it they charge,

To forge sprawling walls and towers for knights to inhabit.

Now, the sun has changed,

Casting long shadows.

We walk home again, hand in hand.