Merry-Go-Rounds

So many times
I've been invited
to hop
onto spinning merry-go-rounds
the passengers a dizzying blur
they'd offer their hands
for me to grab and they'd pull me up
to join in the ride

All I had to do
was clutch one
they'd lift me
into some sort of wild pin-wheeling fun
but
my
grip wasn't strong enough,
they spun too fast and whenever I approached
the force would knock me backwards
my hesitant body careening out of control away from them
leaving me to land in a thud
to rub my pounding noggin
and sit there on my impact-bruised bum, watching and yearning

They'd spin on in glee
wee, wee
and me,
well I'd sit and mope and see
that the pivot under the merry-go-round
was really in the shape of a drill
and the whole thing spun like a top digging for the bottom
the longer they spun
the deeper into the soft soil of their playgrounds
they would be driven
until the whole thing
came to a violent
teetering halt
and all aboard would be thrown off
like Raggedy-Anns and Andys
to crumple limply about on the ground

now they're rubbing their boo-boos and
it's me there to offer an invitational hand
as I stand on solid land
but I really do wanna play now
so I employ their efforts
to restart the fun-machine
"But it's drilled into the dirt!" they exclaim,
like children who dropped their teddy bears in the mud

so I have to lead by example,
grab a handle bar and grit my teeth,
dig my heels into the dirt and struggle to push
in the opposite direction
sweat pops on my forehead
they get the idea...
and join me, each
pushing their own bar
all of us, in an attempt to loosen
and unscrew the happy device
and so it now spins backwards
just as fun as forwards
faster and faster
up and out of the ground
until we achieve a nice momentum
we then hop on and hold on for dear life laughing,
squealing from the power of the centrifuge
holding our arms out to lift up
to join in on our new fun any
willing passer-by.