Hopscotch

Gloria MacKay

Life is a game, okay, but don’t
blurt this out to the children
or even imply that the games
within games write the rules

A play within a play
one might say, the way
Shakespeare puts it to Hamlet
and Hamlet speaks just to himself

What can we say to the children
when their lives remain games
but they don’t want to stay
on the stage any more?

Seasoned teachers will surely explain
—but not quite yet—not until
the rains wash their game away,
the driveway returns to gray

The chalk is lost in a pocket
and the markers have disappeared
like worn out wishes
tossed along with the trash