ENCOUNTER AT RECESS
There were hordes of them,
jostling, rope-skipping,
ball bouncing, laughing,
shrieking, wriggling, wrestling.
Seeing me (drawn caricature
of themselves), they froze
into a frieze of Grecian loveliness -
Elgin marbles alive,
floating hair, freckled noses,
paradoxical beauty
of curves and angularities.
I spoke only one word.
Giggling, hornet-stung,
they bolted, thudding
over pavement in stampede;
long manes floating windward.
Their thunder died away
until the solitary air
brimmed only with echoes
of gamin laughter.
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