Life's a diversion. From what? You decide.

for Jen


The boy morphed into a clandestine gremlin with just a few swift movements:
He hopped behind a bush a few inches taller than he
and he bent his knees
and squinted his eyes
and scrunched his face,
as if the smaller he made his face, the smaller his body would appear,
(or disappear) behind the bush.

He peeked through the bending boughs on my left
but forgot to hide his white plastic butterfly catcher
so I whispered as I peered at him in my peripheral vision
“You can’t catch me-”
and at the break of my last vowel, I broke into a sprint
toward the main door.
The spontaneity of my scurry triggered a giggle from the bush.

I turned to see him standing, just barely to the side of the bush
An uneasy countenance surfaced about his abilities:
worried he hadn’t hidden well
I smiled and said “Maybe next time.”