Pepper

[Greebie]

Pepper

you were a dragon to a seven-year old

jumping rope. hot whispering of elastic
through atmosphere and geiger-clicking on summer
asphalt warned us to jump in time

as we taunted you in sprechtgesang --
reciting hungry, violent poems --
you would snap at us,
leaving bright pink stains on our ankles.

something in us would summon you, calmly
we would skip in machine time, controlling
the course of the rope, but some
thing in us would call for you, screaming
your name, tightening our wrists as if to hold a wand
to cast you into existence as we motored wild-eyed,
terrified, faster and faster.

That exhilarating trance of play; I was never
more prayerful or aware; nevermore
prayerful or aware am I now listening around

a thousand altars, to be summoned myself.