It's Still Life

dVerse Takes a Ride

Double Dare

Dare you. Double dare you.
Boo! as you do in 3rd grade,
the school’s haunted house,
and my knees are crawling
through prickly air, down
around a web-blown maze.

I’m blind as a mole
in this unmerciful clench.
Air blows ghostly sheets
and pumpkins growl — I hold
myself in this airless sheer.
Dare you. Double dare you

to breathe,
to scream,
to look …
The fear.
For fear.

The end’s never seemed so near,
my world spins cold and dark
in astonishment.
Dare you. Pssst. Double dare you.
You’d best beware!

 
 
written for dVerse Poets “Amusement Park Rides“

Misky

10 responses to “dVerse Takes a Ride”

  1. frankhubeny avatar
    frankhubeny

    Getting on a ride does seem like accepting a dare although we do think we will survive the ride. There is an underlying optimism about taking the risk.

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  2. lillian avatar
    lillian

    LOVE this look into a third grader’s world! Double dare you…..ooooh I imagine many remember those words. And our chest would puff out and we just had to comply!!! We couldn’t slink away in those impressionable years.
    At my children’s grade school, many many many years ago….there was a Fun Night held every year. One classroom held a cake walk (remember those?); another had a Treasure Sale (folks sent in their “white elephants” and this was many the source of a parent’s or sibling’s Christmas gift, put in a paper bag to hide, for usually 25 cents). The sixth graders (school went from kindergarten thru sixth grade) were always in charge of creating a haunted house…usually created by connecting big cardboard boxes (donated by the Maytag Laundry store) and cutting windows in them where a sixth grader in ghoulish make-up would peer out with a flashlight under their chin (room was dark); and you had to feel eyeballs in the dark (olives) and guts and brains (spaghetti)! Some of the thirdgraders steered clear of the room as long as they could but inevitably there was a “dare.” 🙂 Thanks for jogging these fun memories here! 🙂

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    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      Oh yes, olive eyeballs and oily, cold spaghetti. And my goodness, how we loved to scream! Have you ever noticed that little girls love to scream? 🙂

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  3. Björn Rudberg (brudberg) avatar
    Björn Rudberg (brudberg)

    Ah.. yes it always starts like that… I was way too much a coward to fall for that… but I do like the double dare.

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  4. kanzensakura avatar
    kanzensakura

    I always liked certain rides as a child, esp. the huge ferris wheel. The last decade or so, my husband and I just enjoy walking about the county fair and looking at exhibits. But that “double dare”…oh my how I remember!

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    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      I remember being on a swinging pirate ship, and I nearly tossed my lunch all over the kids in front of me. Note that I said *nearly*. I don’t cope well with extreme swinging and upside down rides. 😉

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      1. kanzensakura avatar
        kanzensakura

        LOL…neither do i.

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  5. Beverly Crawford avatar
    Beverly Crawford

    Double dare, double dog dare. Who hasn’t heard those words. They conjure childhood memories long forgotten. Thank you!

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  6. Bekkie Sanchez avatar
    Bekkie Sanchez

    Who hasn’t been dared to do something they don’t want to? Sometimes it’s better just to experience it, once you do no more fear. Most of the time…

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  7. kim881 avatar
    kim881

    Oh I’d be the first on a haunted ride, Misky, of any kind! Double dare me!

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