Playground, view from the 4th Floor (c) Stacey Lehman
So this is where the children hide all day,
These are the nests where they letter and draw,
where they put on their bright miniature jackets,
all darting and climbing and sliding,
all but the few girls whispering by the fence.
And now I am listening hard
in the grandiose silence of the snow,
trying to hear what those three girls are plotting,
what riot is afoot,
which small queen is about to be brought down.
from "Snow Day" by Billy Collins (Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems)
— sdh