Swing

[BobBradshaw]

Swing

Wednesday off is as foreign to me
as the coast of Chile.

The boys whoop
on the monkey bars. The girls twist
headfirst like eels down slides.

The mothers eye me, a stranger.
I bask on a bench
in the sun's warm hands,

trying to relearn to relax.
I'm a workaholic, disoriented
by a day off.

A small child, his eyes
as jellied as a squid's,
comes up to me before his mother
grabs his wrist and hurries him off.

A tribe of moms gathered
on the leggy grass
study me like prairie dogs
tracking a fox.

One woman cups
her hand over a cell phone.

A police car pulls up to the curb
like a shark along a reef.
A scowling officer walks towards me.
I squint into the distance.

"Sir, may I see your driver license?"

Excuse me? Was I speeding?
Humor always betrays me
when I'm nervous. Sorry,
is there a problem?

"Again, could I see your license?"
He studies it...as if it were a passport
and I was a suspected drug dealer
passing through L.A. airport.

"What are you doing here, sir?"
I live nearby. I wanted to sit
on a bench and enjoy the sun.
"Near children?"

Do you want me to adopt a child
so I can sit on a park bench?

We drove off in his police car.
I spent a couple hours in jail
before my wife bailed me out.
"What were you thinking?" she asked.

"Spending time at a children's park...
No wonder you were arrested."
It wasn't a children's park.
It was just a park.

"Whatever"...Why is it that
everyone, even one's wife,
believes the cops are always right?

I never took a Wednesday off
again. I had learned my lesson.
My god, instead of a bench
what if I had sat on a swing?


Note… in the spirit of wrongfully jailed poems

[Billy]

Guilty until proven innocent, I guesss. This is a delightful poem. I loved the whole thing, but especially the first half. Yours isn't just telling like mine; it has poetry to it, lyricism, similes, just great.

[CalebMurdock]

This is a great poem. I assume it actually happened, though I guess I shouldn't. It's written too well, with too much energy and irony for it to just be dreamed up. The opening couplet is fabulous -- "the coast of Chile", very funny!

If it did happen, to be arrested for sitting in a park, even in a children's play area, might have given you legal justification to sue the police.

Nicely done.

[BobBradshaw]

Thank you, guys.