Ninety years after first foundations laid
The groundwork for what has grown into
Several thousand citizens in a municipality
In northern PG County, we gathered to parade
And maybe a little, too, against the pandemic
Which I’d venture most had vaccinated against.
We caught the parade’s tail end of flashing lights and sirens
Followed by a band and “goodbye.” Then a routine lunch and naps
And I left for an East-West softball game which the East won by two runs, 21-19, and they scored 18
In the first and third innings. I jumped into a third base fray
And didn’t help our team’s chances. A guy wearing a “Dilly-Dilly” shirt
Slammed a ball over the public works’ fence and into a dumpster.
And there were other happenings, but I enjoyed it
Enough to want to play more softball. I returned home for Nicole and the kids
And we returned to the Town Park
Where the kids played with others on the playground
And we gravitated to free popcorn and surveying the “Midway,”
Which games we might’ve played if the kids were older and we hadn’t committed
To visiting our friends. Our friends’ house parallels the park,
And specifically the annual Cheverly Day fireworks display,
And our host gave out ear plugs near the end of the kid frolic and adult talking
Intermixed with eating pizza and s’mores and wings and more,
But the earplugs were too little too late to prevent terror, which we watched in its explosive rainbow spectacle.
And we were all tired afterwards, especially the kids—
A happy full-day of fun kind of tired.