and just lean on back
and stop struggling
i'd just float on up
and not disappear
it started so innocently
inverting packed buckets around me
building up walls of my castle
building up towers and lookouts
and digging a moat for the crocodiles.
giant crocodiles
that would eat up invading armies
before they could reach my walls
failing to notice it had all started to slump
it's advised that you build on solid ground
but i never imagined that these things
went so far down
figured it's four foot by four foot by six inches deep
well i've been on swingsets that launch you into space
and sliding boards where you climb and climb and
never reach the top just climb back down before you fall
and once i crossed a jungle gym harboring amazonian pythons
over a puddle of piranhas
but i'd never found a quicksandbox until today
and i stepped right in
soon i'll be nothing more
than a memory
and a slight depression in the sand where i used to be
never thought it would end this way
i've survived dodgeball crossfire
pulled five g's on the carousel
and i've only ever been tagged out once
and i let the guy
let him have bragging rights
that he beat the king
and that's only because he was having such a bad day
it was gonna be a grand kingdom
my own sandy camelot
when i indulge in retrospect
i probably should have left the royal geologist
together at the neck
well i've been on swingsets that launch you into space
and sliding boards where you climb and climb and
never reach the top just climb back down before you fall
and once i crossed a jungle gym harboring amazonian pythons
over a puddle of piranhas
but i'd never found a quicksandbox until today
it's the sound of an era ending
maybe it's time to be bowing out
anyway i don't want to grow up and be
questing tax loopholes armored in a suit and tie
and they'll have to carve a stone:
"here lies the adventurer king of the playground
he may still be sinking down"
cause they wouldn't find the bottom when they went to pull me out
well i've been on swingsets that launch you into space
and sliding boards where you climb and climb and
never reach the top just climb back down before you fall
and once i crossed a jungle gym harboring amazonian pythons
over a puddle of piranhas
but i'd never found a quicksandbox until today
quicksandbox
BacK
copyright 2004 daniel s. zimmerman