rock, paper, scissors
 ----------------------

 rock smashes scissors
 scissors cut paper
 paper wraps rock

 with just our hands
 from broken pebbles, twisted metal 
 we build so thick a wall
 
 that no notes can pass
 no voice be heard
 no vulnerability offered
 no danger    no love

 all our childhood games
 go awry when played 
 with grown-up strategies

 what ever happened to
 "say say oh playmate"?

 what ever happened to 
 sitting together in the sunshine
 on the same side of the wall?

 the sandbox is still there
 filled with half-remembered toys
 and faint echoes of laughter
 awaiting rediscovery

	-acm (4/97)