This isn’t a rebuttal of Philip Larkin’s This be the Verse (see my previous post), it’s a meditation on that theme.:
Aged 7
You grip the rope with fists
and thighs. I pull you back,
high, high, then let you go.
You swing and spin wildly out over the stones
and logs, laughing, reckless. I cringe,
imagining greenstick fractures,
hangman’s fractures,
clutching your body.
But the knot seems tight
and you love it and what are the chances? And,
I think, this is what I’m supposed to give you.
So, once again, I pull you back,
then let you go.