Hide and Go Seek

Hide and Go Seek

Close your eyes. Both hands
over your face. No peeking!
You have to count out loud
to a hundred. It takes a long time,

and while you're doing it,
everybody else is running away.
Open your eyes, and they're gone.

Already Billy has found a box
made of pine, with a hinged lid.
Somebody set it out with the trash.
They'll never look in here.

At the far end of the alley,
a fire burns in a metal barrel.
Mary reaches into the flames.

They feel soft, like the folds
of a quilt stitched by hand.
She burrows beneath them.

The rest of the children
stretch out in the weeds.
A few make it to the path
that goes under the bridge.

You will never be able
to find them. They know
all the good places to hide

out there in the grass,
out there in the dark.