Patricia Asuncion’s most recent poem to appear here was “Fogbound” (February 2019). 

Big Boy Games
By Patricia Asuncion

Empty city lot for playground,
big clubs for guns,
kids crawl low in weeds.
Today they are lookouts,

buddies other days,
breeding top-dog mentality
that sticks beyond sandlot scrapes,
to full-grown savagery.

In Middle East schoolyard,
Netanyahu throws tantrums,
dead game pieces strewn everywhere.

In muscle tanks, Putin and gang
flex goon force
to take back lost turf.

Afraid for generations, the bullied
beg American protection,
but war profits US
from both sides.

New games—
nukes     chemical warfare     drone strikes
raise the stakes
to all losers