Somewhere in the Middle

on a jungle gym
they swing off crosses
splinters lodged deep
into smooth palms

devilish whispers
caught in nightingale throats
split from parted beaks
sweeping sonic swoons

and a jungle scream
forested in theme-
attics hedged over
marbled precipices

I met you on Halloween's Easter
holding dead daisies skipping
as you whistled Frère Jacques
in a minor key

lush grass grew under your feet
swallowing the ground
and faded to a pale brown
twilling itself into knots

life and death at once
in an instant

intent to be lost in the fray
stuck somewhere in the middle