November 20: Universal Children’s Day

Playground Revisited

My little puppy pulls me to the fence

where children squeal and frolic in delight,

like sunny slices ready to ignite

before my eyes, like tiny instruments

of angel choruses beneath a sky

of cotton candy clouds. My puppy leaps

to greet the impish faces over heaps

of crisp November leaves that amplify

the clamor. Sugar maples, ripple-red

against a patch of blue, appear to sprout

like lollipops as greedy children shout

for ticklish puppy licks. But then the dread

of schoolkids - teacher voices - breaks the spell,

and I and my companion bid farewell.