Grey Brown | Poems

Early Intervention Play Group

Ironic this name
as she does so little play,
tends to stray
when children
come too close,
as though something
literally intervenes
between my daughter
and play
and group.

At twenty months,
she is the only one
who cannot walk
except for the boy
with cerebral palsy
who still creeps
across the floor,
calls her name,
too slow to catch her.
She crawls a steady orbit,
watching and avoiding
the others and their games.

She pauses, plinks
piano keys
before escaping
the attempted duet.
She sits alone,
waving her hands
before her face,
the music
of her small fingers
still ringing.