Rings

We drew around ourselves
with twigs and fingers
in softest earth
mud children intuiting
the urgency of such
grave precautions

straight-faced ceremoniously
our playground cemetery
smoothly transforming
shifting easily into respective roles
rotating out the coveted parts
was all so clear once
so sure and brilliant

so secure in the knowledge
of my own genius
and your friendship
before I contracted this
contagious uncertainty
worsened by time

once pure and blameless
without the blemishes of age
and misplaced bullets
seems our lives had always
been linked by rings
and such things

but the strength
the purpose of a ring
lies in its entirety
and infinite continuity
once broken
a ring is nothing more
than a bent line and a chain
no stronger than its
weakest link

strange it seems
that it should’ve been me
still I pity us both
with our minds
so associative
And once free