If You’re Tired Then Go Take a Nap

I never liked bridges or cops & there
are more of both of them in the suburbs,
lording over possibilities like stumbles

do stairs. Down the blue & white set next
to the small gym after first period, shoelace
caught under a new bully’s foot. He would

have gotten stole on in Carriage House, but
not by me. Gots to chill or it’ll get worse:
in blue Jams & pushed off summer’s slick

ledge, long fall into the private pool broken
into three distinct verses: the flail & giggling
girls, the sun-stroked lifeguard’s exclamation,

& the red-handed water’s backslap rising up,
splitting into two, more chlorinated skies.