In Loco Parentis

were some quite creepy men — one

used to lie down

on the dayroom floor, then get us all

to pile on top of him — and a basilisk-

eyed matron in a blue uniform with a watch

dangling

beneath her right

collarbone. Thump thump

thump went her footsteps, making

the asbestos ceiling tiles quiver, and me

want to hide, or run like a rabbit

in a fire . . .

                    What we lost, we lost

forever. A minor

devil played at chess

with us, forcing

the pieces to levitate

and hover, flourishing swords, in midair. I’d grasp

them now, the orotund bishop, the stealthy

knight, the all-

knowing queen,

but they dissolve

in my fingers, refuse

to return to the board, to their squares.