poem
by Leath Tonino
Problem
The playground flooded.
No one was there, no one got hurt, but it’s quite a mess.
Parents across the community are deeply concerned.
There was a meeting.
Someone at the meeting mentioned a fundraiser.
Someone else mentioned shovels, wheelbarrows.
One dad got mad, really pissed.
A second turned purple.
A third, who was also a grandpa, threatened to throw a chair against the wall.
Burnt it all down, burn it all down, burn it all down, he muttered.
The kids, for their part, are okay.
Just muddy.
Leath Tonino is the author of two essay collections, The Animal One Thousand Miles Long and The West Will Swallow You. A freelance writer, his poetry and prose appear in Orion, The Sun, New England Review, Outside, National Geographic, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, and many other magazines, journals, and anthologies.