Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

                        Two ropes 
              and the girls 
oscillating—quick 

turn all around 

feet.   Their voices 
             somehow flat 
                         and birdsong,

touch the ground 

                       chanting in unison, 
             palms falling 
into palms 

show your shoes 

a bright morning, 
             gold light. 
                       Hands, falling 

be excused 

                 over hands. 
             High knees and 
sneakers quiet 

jump back in 

when they touch
             the silent spaces
                       in between 

do it again

                       the slap 
             of plastic 
on asphalt. 

Kyle William McGinn is a union organizing, basketball coaching, Chihuahua owning poet whose poetry has appeared in Watershed Review, Stonecoast Review, and Typehouse, with forthcoming work in This Thing Called Poetry: An Anthology of Poems by Young Adults with Cancer from Finishing Line Press. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin - River Falls and holds an MFA from Hamline University. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.