Chalk Dust and Skipping Ropes Long summers where have the dreams all gone?

Chalk Dust and Skipping Ropes

We carved our worlds in concrete squares

with chalky hands and sun-bleached hair

feet bare or scuffed in worn-out shoes

no rules we followed, none to lose

Hopscotch grids from one to ten

a stone, a leap, then back again

we’d mark the sky with secret codes

while laughter danced down alley roads

The skipping ropes slapped steady beat

on cracked pavements and restless feet

we chanted rhymes we barely knew

and jumped in time, as children do

No clocks, no phones, no list of tasks

just dares and dreams and wooden masks

the wind was wild, the day was long

each moment loud, each heartbeat strong

The world was ours from dusk till tea

a kingdom built on cuts and glee

where stories sparked from dust and sun

and every fall meant more to run

We didn’t know how fast it flies

those days beneath the open skies

yet still they hum beneath our skin

each skip and laugh, still tucked within