On Mondays, the village hall is closed:
no community cinema, yoga or bingo.
Even the clock has slowed almost to a stop.
I crunch across the gravel, past the football pitch,
dodge clumps of daisies and jump a little ditch.
No dogs allowed inside the playground
with its drooping swings, not-so-merry-go-round,
empty slide and ropes to climb.
I sit on a swing and rain spits;
push off with my feet, sky tilts and tips;
trees and houses slide away.
I slip back to a pile of dried leaves and a butterfly.
In the roadside hedge, sparrows chirp, dodge in and out.
A dog barks and, in the distance, children shout.
Kim M. Russell, 2017
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics – Community
A warm welcome to Paul with his first official bar prompt! Thanks for sharing Starhawk’s writing and the poem ‘Ode to Wine’ by Pablo Neruda.
Paul asks where we find community in our lives: in real time? With people? Family and friends, clubs and associations? In nature? With animals? In cyber-space? With birds of a feather? With the world? In your country? In the pub? He wants us to take a moment to reflect on where and how community shows up in our lives and then write a poem with the word community at its heart.
writing in north norfolk 
There’s a real nostalgia in the swing moment…not so droopy when someone is using it…I like how the community is closed when the village hall shuts…well…part of it. Get a real sense of being rural. Thanks for your contribution to the prompt. Fab as always.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Paul!
Tuesdays and Thursdays are busier when the weaving workshop and yoga are on. Sunday is usually football day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A wonderful outsider view of the joys of community, and the wondrous silence of empty playgrounds, locked doors & shuttered windows, On liberty, as a sailor, I used to walk through neighborhoods staring at windows & crowds & imagining the millions of stories within the naked city.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Although the playground is quite sad, I’m strangely drawn to its empty silence – and I get to have a sneaky swing!
LikeLike
The scenery of a Monday is so well described… love the life you bring with the children playing… wonderful
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Bjorn.
LikeLike
Seems sad to me. Empty playgrounds always are. I get a sense of the community being the shell, and the individual is on the inside, but alone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, that’s a good way of putting it, Jane, especially as we have so few young people let alone children in our village.
LikeLike
It’s happening in the countryside here too. Schools closing because there are no children. No jobs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s an isolated sense of community to be alone in a play ground.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That it is, Frank.
LikeLike
This reminds me so much of English village life. I prefer to think the swings are empty because the children are still at school.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I try to tell myself that, Alison, but there are hardly any children in our village now. I think parents are put off moving here because there isn’t a school, although the school bus comes through for the few children who do live here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nostalgic and idyllic to me. Must be dinnertime, and the children have all gone home! Lovely read.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are so few children in our village these days. It’s such a shame.
LikeLike
I am so jealous of your swing adventures!
There is work in progress on the green at the head of my estate, a children’s playground, swings and all. I have already planned to sneak up there in the dark of night and swing to my hearts content!
Anna :o]
LikeLiked by 1 person
I shall be sneaking over again very soon, Anna!
LikeLike
These lines took me there:
“I sit on a swing and rain spits;
push off with my feet, sky tilts and tips”
LikeLiked by 1 person
It happened and I think it will happen again – as long as no one’s looking!
LikeLike
When a village hall is closed or a playground is empty, it looks sad to me ~ I love to see people and children enjoying themselves with games ~ Also love the sounds of your lines:
sparrows chirp, dodge in and out.
A dog barks and, in the distance, children shout.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We don’t have many children in the village any more and the day nursery has been moved to another village. It’s such a shame as we have plenty to offer.
LikeLike
I remember getting sick–too many trips on the tire swing! 😮 But I found community at a playground too. Great write.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it depends how high you swing, Crystal! These days I stay close to the ground! Thanks for commenting.
LikeLike
I am struck by the originality of this…presenting a sense of how it feels when community activity is absent (or scheduled for another time). I also enjoyed the feeling of being on a swing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m pleased you enjoyed it, Janice. I think I might pop over to the swings again this afternoon!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nothing seems to be the same again in the community! One reminisces and craves for what it had been before and one is alone!
Hank
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think that is why so many people turn to on-line communities, Hank.
LikeLike
Oh, such Adventurous Fun!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Dorna!
LikeLike