Life Saving at the Village Festival

Wooden tables line the square, long rows
of scarred goodwill, bygones turning
to toasts in intergenerational clamor.

Across the dusty bocce court
children chase each other in ragged
circles while adults lean over sharp edges—
drink and eat, laugh and rise to dance.

We know each other’s names and history
like the singer knows his memorized lyrics.

Kids take turns jumping to twist and fall,
kicking up pebbles, helping each other up,
sparking toward the distant future of stars.
A girl bends over a prone boy, extracting

temporary death from his fresh bones,
pushing entwined hands against his heart.
An amateur at pretending death, his legs
twitch. So hard to die, then so easy.

Hands on heart. All she needs
to know, though it’s never enough.
She places a pebble on his forehead.
He knocks it away.