Limbo
We have our eyes on the chairs, ready
for when the music stops. Nobody wants
to be in the space where a seat had been
before. The limbo stick goes lower again.
Those left in, contort their spines to hover
in the gap, avoid collapse. I cover the cake
with a food umbrella, yet an ant squeezes
through. I rescue it, but guests are coming
this way. I squash it dead under my thumb.
In the sandpit the children fight to win
the only digger. Particles of sand slide
back down into the hole it leaves behind.
Anna Mindel Crawford won first prize at Clevedon Literary Festival 2023 Open Poetry Competition. Her recent work can be found in Propel Magazine (forthcoming), Visual Verse and Wildfire Words.