Arts Alive San Antonio

Jonathan Fletcher’s poem “No Longer Boys” echoes the anxiety and loss of confidence all adults experience at this time. We bring it to you today with a photo of young Jonathan and his carefree buddies playing in the schoolyard years ago.

No Longer Boys

By Jonathan Fletcher

When our former classmate took his life,
which the paper reported as an accident,
we gathered at our old school playground,
big and tall, though weak compared to those
small but fearless boys we once resembled.

We were brave then, would hang upside
down from the monkey bars, slide face-first
down the slide, fly backward off the swings,
and chase one another as we recited playful
lines from deceptively dark nursery rhymes.

But we are timid now, anxious around any
heights and edges, cautious around all metal
and gravel, a shade of the boys who raced to
reach the top of the playset first and declare
himself the king of all the kindergarteners.

We were powerful then, could instantly
“freeze,” “unfreeze,” “kill,” and “resurrect”
each other, our only concerns skinned knees
and scraped elbows, all quickly and easily
fixed by Nurse Lauren’s colorful Band-Aids.

But we are fragile now, unsteady on the
monkey bars and uneasy on the slides and
swings, ill-suited to the power of pretend-
play and vulnerable to accidents that even
childhood, Band-Aids, and recess cannot fix.