a long time since i have seen an unspooled tape on the floor

a long time since I have seen an unspooled tape on the floor

growing up,
my gingerbread
kingdom,
would often be riddled
with the metallic
brown linguine,
of a dismembered
cassette.

gutted, in spilling
streamers, strands
forcibly unwound
from the haggard spools.

as caught on the wind,
they stole under tyres
like a stinger.
wider, than the long,
laughing mouth of the road.

today,
catching one afoot,
I owned
the sudden feeling,
of being brightly
nine again.