The Park (For Yosh And Joao) Poem by Stephen Bennett The Playjurist

I'm going to show the boys tomorrow
it's a living thing. A snake
without a tail or belly. A puppy
without a tail or legs. A growing
gathering up the entire largeness
of so many tiny parts
all working at the same thing.
Alive together because I can see
all of it look at me... appreciating
what I think, as I look back at it.
it goes nowhere... is everywhere
an everywhere that's all
it's own to everyone alive
in the joy of the life
that plays through it
through the stopping there
of everyone. Sirens of Raymond Street
and Chalkstone sing and children
on their daytime swings
fly above it before the patient skies
holding back their rain to let
go the sunset finally by
until very late this one night
I find the first time it sits
over there looking back at me
with the two boys asleep
upstairs I make a promise
to tell them tomorrow,
when they awake I'll tell them
the park over there is alive.

And then still later on beyond eleven
four guys and their basketball
take over and then the park
no longer looks at me and we
are both watching them
only it's all them
with all their hitting and missing
and bouncing around. Life is
life wherever it is. It's so wrong
to think all it is
is what's in us.