Games We Play Poem by Bernard Quest

We sock-shuffled across the sun-warped boards
And lying down to read, you took my feet
pulling from my sole a fragment lodged there,
ministering with love and alcohol
that burned, then with the changing breeze turned cool.

And when felt-soft darkness wrapped our cabin
we jack-o'lanterned joy to the valley.
I said 'Let's play Jenga'. You said 'OK'.
So we built this tower of wooden bricks.
One by one. We had no guide. It stood tall.

And we looked at it from all sides, testing
With cautious movements, the tricks of friction
And gravity and more than once it swayed;
Wobbled at your provocation, before equilibrium.
Until pushing something fundamental.

A brick near the bottom, left of central,
sent it clattering harshly to the floor.
You looked at the pieces so widely spread,
Didn't want to play that game anymore
So climbed the stairs alone, and went to bed.