Poetry

Care Day

“How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.” — Rupi Kaur

Photo by srinivas bandari on Unsplash

they came in and brought
board games
inflated springy castles and slides
walls for climbing
spewing storytelling like hot
cider.

the kids told
me to play their father.

then
I was whisked away to the massage chair
where I really made sure
they didn’t slip as they
spun
in circles like pockets of wind.

the chair threw me around
for twenty minutes
and then I was assigned to teach yoga
in a room with butterfly
nets and acrylics and
tennis rackets
which is to say chaos.

“HEY! ARE YOU BEING
RESPECTFUL?”

I demanded.
I pleaded.
I counted to ten.