Took a trip to Plymouth Meeting Mall
for Mum-Mum’s birthday discovering
a circus big tent set up in the parking lot
to contrast the empty storefronts inside
children having a pizza birthday party
with games and bungee trampolines
arcades and building block experiences
providing the mall’s only livelihood
coin operated boats and school buses
just as diverting without paying for motion
and at the center the carousel
sitting silent with attendant sweeping
we started the line getting tickets to ride
soon followed by fellow families
intergenerational attraction to the spin
of highly lacquered horses rising
up and down as they went around and
around we sat at the turning wheel
in either direction even a second level
the sights lit up their faces grandmother
and child on either side of the circle
within the circles creating more and more
childlike wonder at every turn a solar
system eclipsed only by our own joy
Joshua Keiter 