The rays of the sun filter through the blinds, each blade slicing the light and catapulting

them into the welcoming room. The radiant shine contrasts sharply against the ravaged world beyond, My eyes quickly turn away from the blinding beams to the assortment of metal and frames outside, once carefully assembled by fretful workers. There it still proudly stood, a rusting, majestic being, forgotten yet still waiting. Unkempt weeds sprouted over the weathered swings, while obnoxious words embedded themselves deeply into the deformed poles. A playground which once captured the essence of childhood had now succumbed to the effects of decay, like the withered, oak trees that valiantly clung to life. Though it had been reduced to a crumbling mess, it still shone brightly, the place that had revealed the unreachable world. At the age of seven, I threw my first tantrum through the eyes of a young child who stubbornly wailed, as his distraught mother struggled to pry his hands off the pristine monkey bars. I watched him from my room as he thrashed his legs like a bird, anxious to escape from the confines of its owners hands. The phrase, I hate you, endlessly barrages my mind as Im hit with the memory of the fickle child who continued to scream whilst his mother had lovingly encased him in the warmth of her arms. My eyes scan the horizon to the left as they momentarily land on the ruined slide that had introduced me into the world of illegal substances. A pack of young adolescents had been the frequent visitors of the lush soil that lay below; seeking refuge for their experimental escapades as they willingly destroyed themselves. For days the foreign smell had wafted through the windows as I hacked and coughed, gasping for air like the naive girl who longed to find a place amongst her peers. Just shy of entering adulthood, I came face to face with the prospect of suicide as a hysterical woman threatened to end her life from the top of the discoloured jungle gym. Her partner had cowered below in fright as he pleaded for her to stop such foolishness. I remember as I watched in unrestrained fascination as my fragile hands continuously tightened their grip on the windowsill, frozen in awe over the simplistic matters some would end their existence for. Why? and Why couldnt you love me? she had cried out to the sky as if the answers would suddenly rain down upon her. If only the solution to such struggles were as effortless as she had hoped for, maybe then, people would stop scrambling to decipher their own as they left behind a wake of devastation. The thunderous sounds of motors roaring suddenly break me from my reverie, each roar rising a decibel higher every second. The twisting trees topple over whilst the weed bow down, forming a barren path for the foreign machines headed towards the oldest resident of the area. The scavenging pigeons halt their search for food and determinedly make their way to the top of the jungle gym, fluffing their feathers as they land, resembling soldiers anxiously preparing for battle. However, they stood no chance against the monstrosity as their fortress was soon crushed by destructive claws. In a flurry of feathers the pigeons retreat, squawking my unvoiced cries as they watch in terror, unable to stop the annihilation. One by one, each carefully built structure is unhinged from the ground and haphazardly thrown onto the growing pile of trash. On and on the destruction continued, the monkey bars bend under the mere thumb of the machine whilst the remaining poles are brutally knocked to the hard

ground. In a state of horror, my pupils dilate, my fingers tremble, my heart palpitates to a point I can hear its beats ringing from ear to ear. Unfiltered questions bounce against the walls of my mind, struggling to free themselves from their confinement. Each clang of metal smashing together continuously shatters my remaining memories as I struggle to hold myself up, determined to see it to the end. The unneeded scraps are eventually burned as the fumes of the flames smother the dimming sunlight. Day quickly turns to night as the blinding lights are snuffed out along with the remaining smoke, leaving behind a barren wasteland. Beyond the dissipating haze, a new resident emerges, Land for Sale it states. The playground had been torn apart as quickly as the disease had ravaged my aging body. For years, the colourful array of metals had anchored me