Strata – a poem by Dan Campion

Strata

Some children play at games decidedly,
some with at least a sense of style, and some
so hesitatingly it’s clear they’ll be
the one who’s chosen last next time. So, from
ten minutes’ observation in the school-
yard, you can peg who’s who, who’s what, who’s fast,
who’s slow, who’s sharp, who’s dull; but they can fool
you, changing places so the first runs last.
Seek out the child who flat refuses play,
who stays inside at recess reading books
or staring out the window. They’ll turn gray
still in a book or giving skies long looks.
So long as there are words or clouds to read,
their steadfastness is almost guaranteed.

Dan Campion is the author of Calypso (1981), The Mirror Test (2024), A Playbill for Sunset (2022), and Peter De Vries and Surrealism (1995) and is a co-editor of Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song (1981, 2nd ed. 1998, 3rd ed. 2019). Dan’s poetry has appeared previously in Amethyst Review and in Able Muse, Light, Poetry, Rolling Stone, THINK, and many other magazines.