"The Little Boy Who Liked To Dance"

The Little Boy Who Liked To Dance

There was a little boy who
walked outside a playground
one summer, along the fence,
looking in at the games,
the kids running, jumping
and the coach keeping score.
He waited for
someone to say,
“Hey, come on, join in,
be my partner, play with us,
try it, it’ll be fun”.
After the games, there was
craft time when kids
pushed their hands into plaster
or braided plastic lacing into
key chains and jewelry.
This boy walked the fence,
looking but pretending
not to look,
clutching a stuffed toy dog
and wearing new
radio headphones sent to him
for his birthday by his
grandma and grandpa in Florida,
waiting for someone to say,
“Hey, I like those headphones,
where did you get them,
how do they work?”.
When he came home,
his mother asked,
“Did you have a good
time at day camp?”.
His father flew a kite
for him in the backyard,
but all this boy could do was
laugh and clap his hands and
jump up and down,
unable to take the spool,
to learn how
to let out the string.
He was just laughing and
spinning and singing with music
no one else heard and dancing
further away while the kite
kept going
higher and higher...

©JEF 1995