Summer

daycare

“recreation”

a playground,

the saddest park to me

the happiest place to them

for ashen children

with ice cream-smeared faces

embracing 

delight in shadows

industrial

meat-packed filament

this processed universe

is

summer

their dutiful acceptance

 resonates

glee in a  world

they imagine is everything

when shutters open in a plastic house

or they descend

a plastic slide

an aura of ghosts

volleys alongside

metallic processors

an open gate

as if they left in a hurry

or never stopped coming

to this contaminated 

emptiness

sings

with their happiness

this Chernobyl in my heart

this void

is childhood

© Richie Smith