A Pocketful of Marbles

Aggie

 

short for something

short for her age

looked like something

that wove patterns

like the alley

 

Alley

 

with her alabaster skin

and patterned clothes

corkscrew, spiral, snake

onyx swirling on

her tie-dyed clothes

 

Cat’s Eye

 

every bright colour

solid in the glass

no brown-eyed girl

always landed stopped

splendid in the grass

 

China

 

glazed exotic

sometimes a dragon

or a pagoda

if you were unlucky

just a pentagon

 

 

Common

 

Dull and mud-like

no sheen or glow

I played with these

how not when

I was common too

 

 

 

Pearl

 

beautiful skin

glowed in pocket

or hand or next

to plainer ones

sometimes broken

 

Red Devil

 

never saw one close,

nor held one

in hand or arms

always kept away

by the bigger boys

 

 

Steely

 

hard and escaped

from machinery

or machine-made

kept for games

with tom bowler

 

 

Keeps

 

with marbles

and in life

some games

are played

for keeps