Poem: "Games and Fun"
This poem came out of the December 4, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompt from kelkyag, zianuray, minor_architect, and my_partner_doug. This poem belongs to the series Monster House, which you can explore further via the Serial Poetry page. You can also read about erupting volcano cakes and EcoFluxx online.
Games and Fun
The first Friday of each month
is family game night.
The games are always different --
sometimes we play board games
like Life and Monopoly,
other times card games
like Go Fish and EcoFluxx
and the Uno deck that's all in Spanish.
I talk about strategy
and my wife talks about statistics.
The kids equate learning with play
and don't take sides.
Charades takes on a different meaning
when the lurking shadow
can make any shape on the wall.
Hide-and-seek gets a little odd
with the monsters under-the-bed and in-the-closet
popping in and out between dimensions.
There are games that the monsters play,
forgotten games with plum stones
or jumping rhymes in lost languages,
magical games like the bogeyman's bubble sculptures
or the troll's talking stones.
The kitchen chemistry experiments are always fun --
so far the big hit has been the erupting volcano cake
made with baking soda and vinegar and strawberry jello.
It doesn't matter what games we play,
just that we make time for each other
and remember that, as long as everyone has fun,
everyone wins.