Friday 3 August 2018


Night Game

by Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz


It is the middle of the night.
I hear my daughter
up, scampering to find me.
It is a hot night—
another hot New Mexico summer—and
I am lying,
not in my bed,
but on the kitchen floor,
cool Mexican tile beneath me.

Mom, she calls out.
And then, again: Mom.
She concedes this game of hide and go seek
we have not agreed to play.

But I hold onto a few moments,
then softly say: Ollie, Ollie oxen free.
I’m here, my voice guides through the darkness.
I’m here.


* * * * *

"Night Game" was first published in The Ink.

Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz is a writer and photographer.

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