Long Kickball Poems

finding shapes in clouds
or four-leaf clovers in fields . . .
the child’s eye searches

What does it mean to view life through a child’s eyes? For me it means searching for things of wonder to revel...

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A father with one daughter and two sons;
a mother with four daughters of her own -
They came together years ago and bought
what would become my fondest childhood home.

A sharply inclined driveway much too narrow
for all...

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kickball and biking
swinging on swings at the park . . .
youth’s sweet vibrant spark

Memories of my childhood and teenage years are probably the strongest of all my memories. I don’t quite know why that is....

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hanging in the air
humidity’s heaviness . . .
the river’s slow crawl


On the Mississippi lies the beautiful little city where I once lived. How many times I trudged up inclined streets; or leaning forward, red-faced and...

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Hiding Under My 3rd Grade Desk
David J Walker 

Mrs. Pollards smile 
Was enough to reassure every member
Of her third-grade class 

That their world was secure 
As the crass voice in the 
Crackling PA speaker announced...

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By the early years of that ancient decade, the 70's,
I'd tired of my obstreperous tomboyish games: 
kickball with the neighbor kids, sledding in the winter, 
desecrating the peacefulness of our street's grave yard 
with our...

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Traces of the masterful
impregnable prepubescent wall
still extant scads of decades since
complex edifice erected to force tall
permanently leaving me unmoored,
marooned, and furloughed ready for pall
bearers to spill soil upon my
then emaciated stick figure overall,

an unlovely bag...

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Picking berries on grandpa’s farm;
watching him milk cows in the barn.
Getting chased once by swarms of bees.
Oodles of childhood memories.

Books that I read with so much to gain.
Walking down that long country lane;
Hiding behind and...

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I raised my hand and said I would be a volunteer assistant coach of a girls’ football league in the 80’s.
The night before our first practice, the real coach let me know I would be...

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Everyone does it time to time in each day
From your careless mistakes to a child at play
Sneaking the babysitter's cigarettes
Having that stray dog follow you home, then asking to keep it as a pet
A trip...

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Lost in Youth

Rainbows in the clouds, walking on  railroad tracks , locomotives up close 
Kickball games , I am left footed, spooky reflections in a mirror, running naked 
Wooden desks and chairs, kids in...

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Way back then when I was ten,
those were happy days:
Staying out till it got dark;
kickball was the craze!

Taking walks or riding bikes,
how we loved to go
into town, buy some snacks
or see a picture show.

Late at...

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There was a boy and his name was Nick.
He caught a virus and now he's sick.
He can't go to church and he can't go to school,
he can't eat anything but nasty gruel.
He got sick because...

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"How sweet to the heart are the scenes of my childhood"

                        ...

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People ask
What is middle school?
I know exactly, precisely
What it is.
Middle school is a game.
It’s a game of tag
When someone’s tired of
Being the “it” person
They tag someone else
That’s what it is
It’s a game of peek-a-boo
Hoping to...

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As a child I was called a Tom Boy,
following my twin brother like a shadow,
wherever he went I would tag along,
hanging out with school boys to belong.

Backyard kickball kept us out of trouble,
playing for hours...

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A Mischief of a Creature

There's a special bond,
Between a cat and a man.
They're a perfect union together,
With love at its center of hand.

He loves to investigate things, 
But that's just what cats do.
If it meets...

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Girls in the 4th Grade
David J Walker

I remember being 
Distracted in my 4th-grade class
By her perfectness 
But then, 
who really notices girls
In the 4th grade when 
we were
Choosing up sides for a Kickball game
During recess...

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Sweet Summer breeze
scraped n' bruise covered knees
sidewalk chalk marks on your jeans
torn clothes, worn as badges of Adventure
popsicle stained lips
secret crush kisses
Summer life as a kid
I truly miss it

Snatching fireflies from the skies
watching sunsets dashed...

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What happened to the America I once knew?
Where children could play kickball in the street
And next-door neighbors were tried and true
Dining rooms were places where families eat.

Parents took responsibility for their kids
What happened to the...

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You were a child,
without the hindrance
of responsibility
or doubt of what tomorrow
would bring.
A beast on the kickball
field, and yet a whining
baby when the streetlights
went off. Always fighting
sleep like it was the
neighborhood bully. 
You were a clown,
dressed...

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As you sit and ponder
You begin to wonder
Where have the days gone?
Those carefree bygone days 
Of skipping rope 
Of tag and kickball
No more will you be small

Grown up now, bills to pay
Your own kids to...

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It's been a quiet summer since Davy's not around
Just doesn't seem the same anymore
We used to play in this park at night
Now I don't know what I come here for.

When you're thirteen, you're going to...

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‘Blessed I was to be young in an age of charmed dreamers.’

Childhood in suburbia wanting for nothing;
Kickball and flashlight tag ‘til dinner was set; 
Be home by the time the neighborhood’s lit. 
Painting the sky...

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Just Say No

Look at the embers
The smoldering remnants of a lost world
Destroyed by arrogant world leaders
Mere children fighting over their toys
Arguing over the size of their manhoods
How did they let it go so far
How could...

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