A young Caelum followed after his father into the enclosed area of their outdoor park, two of his little siblings, the youngest the age of six (which is, apparently, the age which you begin participating in this hellish competition) followed in his his tail.

They stopped in the usual area — the characteristic oxogen stone pattern beneath his feet, the smooth blue and red swings behind them and th...

Sharp but subtle words

Placed beneath the cherry tree

I see the branch, escapes a bird!

Among the cherry tree

Above the playground watching few

Can’t count the sharp but subtle words

I see a fall, a slip, it flew!

And there out comes the birds

In the playground, in the dark

Still, the streetlights aren’t on

In the shadows at the park

This place in Oregon...

My dragon’s purple scales shine brightly in the sun as we fly higher and higher, but not as high as Flanders’s blue dragon. The swing thumped hard on the ground, uh-oh we prepare for a bumpy landing.

We jump from the swing, tuck and roll dramatically. We yell playful groans and screams. We hop the fence to the elven forest where we meet Lizard and Toad. They put shimmering elven cloaks on our bac...

I fall into the deep void,

Sometimes I think I’m just being paranoid,

The world around me is dark,

And I could never find a mark,

The light is dark but seeks beauty,

I’ve been told of how pretty it is,

The trees grow into blooming leaves that turn warm,

And owls hide away like it’s their dorm,

The grass grows greener each rainfall,

And the swooshing waterfall,

Maybe I can’t see,

But that’s not how...

At some point in childhood it is decided that playing on the playground is something for little kids. But why? What makes us cringe and embarassed in playing on a playground? At what age are we „too old“ for that? At what age is payling on seesaws, swings, climbing frames and slides not right anymore?

The highlight of every child is going to a playground and just running around, giggling, laughin...

My sister and I are digging in the sand underneath the slide. We quickly find the plastic coins we had hidden there last time.

“We found them Papa!” Kate exclaims, running up to him with two of the coins. I follow closely behind her, holding the other coin. We give them to him and he puts them in his pocket.

“Come on! Race you to the swings!” I start running immediately, pressing my hands ag...

*DISCLAIMER*

These are some of my actual, real life memories.

Me and my best friend Evan used to go straight to the swings every recess. It was actually how we became friends in the first place. I was shy, he was too. But every time that bell rang we would go to the same spot—the swings. We would see who could get the highest. At first it was a silent competition, but one day we started talking ...

There she was, Allison, swinging by the woods. I knew I’d find her here. She was always here, swinging on the swings. I asked her one time why she always swung on the swings everyday. She said her and her dad used to come and swing on the swings everyday. Before her dad died, he told her to keep swinging on the swings that he’d always be there with her. She said its the only place where she can st...

Eloise was swinging up and down, her little feet kicking up into the air each time she went higher. Her mother watched from the bench facing the playground, her hand placed on her handbag.

“This seat taken?” A male voice interrupted the focus the mother had, she barely reacts however and instead just glances at him as he sits. “So, you’ve been here a while. How’re you acclimating?”

“Acclimatin...

‘Sarah! Sarah!’

She’s calling her daughter to come take a break from playing to eat her snack.

‘Sarah? Sarah where are you?’

Panic is staring to set in as she realizes she doesn’t see her daughter on the playground. She looked down for only a minute, where could Sarah have gone?

I sit on a bench next to a nearby tree with my unlabeled blue ball cap looking down pretending to read my book abou...