School Yard Games
I.
Huddled
still too many of us
for the old oak to hide
We wait
silent
tap, tap, tap our shoulders
giggles erupt
II.
Crouched
under the desk, knees up heads down
we have to remember
Be still
be quiet
cover our faces
   shades drawn
III.
Dashed
we’re a scatter of birds
looking for home base
running fast
evading capture
freeze when touched
now, we’re living statues
IV.
In school yard games
where the criminals are our own
and pop guns shoot real lead
tiny chests heave until
our bodies lie still
     outlined in crimson
Bully Archer
I.
Staccato hammer
passed around —
echoed taunts
reverberate down linoleum halls
in crouch, one-third hide
behind lockers, empty classrooms, books
II.
Rushed
herd of cattle
corral just ahead
the waiting teacher
dogs nipping our heels
growls howl
shaking student limbs and skin
cower, wait
III.
Bully bowmen’s arrows
outside of class
see their arrows bounce and fall
a chink grows, eventually the bullseye’s hit.
Scars to bury, fester
internalized guidance
deadly archery of the heart.
Serena Agusto-Cox, a Suffolk University alum, writes more vigorously than she did in her college poetry seminars. Her day job continues to feed the starving artist, and her poems can be read in Dime Show Review, Baseball Bard, Mothers Always Write, Bourgeon, Beginnings Magazine, LYNX, Muse Apprentice Guild, The Harrow, Poems Niederngasse, Avocet, Pedestal Magazine, and other journals. An essay also appears in H.L. Hix’s Made Priceless, three poems in the Love_Is_Love: An Anthology for LGBTQIA+ Teens, and a Q&A on book marketing through blogs in Midge Raymond’s Everyday Book Marketing. She also runs the book review blog, Savvy Verse & Wit, and founded Poetic Book Tours to help poets market their books.
Image by Jaroslav Michna – http://www.ostravan.cz/40869/sochar-martin-kocourek-v-ostravske-industrial-gallery-obnazuje-existenci-az-na-dren/http://www.ostravan.cz/files/2017/06/valecne-pole-2017.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69035614
[…] Yard Games” and “Bully Archer” at Bourgeon […]