Hanging

After school we hung like bats,

Eating candy on the climbing bars,

Learning how to “swallow up”

While seeing the world under cars.

Fifty-five years later,

I still remember the eerie sound;

We were watching our faces turn purple...

When the Cessna, hit the ground.

Jolted loose by the shaking earth,

We ran to the fiery scene.

Lindsey's dog found a woman's head,

Fetched proudly for the rescue team.

I look back on my first ten years,

School friends, the old home town...

Some of life's harshest lessons,

Were learned while hanging upside down.