by F.X. Baird

I saw a Girl Running with a Jumprope

I saw a little girl running with a jump rope 

In the empty parking lot behind the high school 

a family has parked their van with the doors blown open. 

The father is thin, a biker or a runner, with a long 

red beard from months of quarantine. The mother 

could be a runner too, skin-tight leggings, not 

from fashion; the practiced care of three young children, 

perhaps a husband who wanders in a dreamlike state. 

I walked by, masked for the times, hidden smile 

remembering parking lots and bicycles, safe asphalt  

for practice and play. They ignore the man walking by. 

The oldest, a boy, helmeted, fiercely peddles his bike. I can’t 

remember what his sister was doing because the youngest, 

a little girl about three, old enough to run without falling, 

throws herself into delight of balance, captures my attention. 

She emerged from the van with a jump rope, a simple 

object, began to run, trailing the rope behind, twisting her 

neck around to see the plastic grip bounce up and down as she 

ran, a smile splitting her face, her mother watching, feet planted apart, 

arms akimbo, back to me. I could not see if pride, delight, fatigue filled 

her eyes. My eyes were filled with memory and something 

like awe. A child, running, taking a simple thing, ignoring its purpose, 

its design, transforming it into something not yet imagined, creating joy.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

F. X. (Fran) Baird was born in Philadelphia. He studied with David Ignatow at the 92nd Street Y in New York City in the early 80’s, and with Cathy Smith Bowers, John Drury and Jamey Dunham at the Antioch Writers’ Workshop in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He is a member of the Osage Street Poets who study with Leonard Gontarek. His poetry has appeared in the Schuylkill Valley Journal, Moonstone Arts, and Philadelphia Stories. His first chapbook, Painting with my Father, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2019. (https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/painting-with-my-father-by-fran-baird/

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