An 8-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother died after getting trapped in a hope chest in their home. ―NBC News

It started as a simple game of hide-and-seek,
a father watching television
as his two children raced up the stairs
on little hands and feet. The mother still
stuck at work while her kids played quietly

by themselves.

They hid in the slippery bottom
of the bathtub, they peeked through
the wooden slats of their bedroom closet
and burst into ceaseless giggles when no one
found them there, they ventured up

to the attic where an old, faulty hope chest
would seal them to an early coffin.John Roth is currently enrolled as a first year student in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts program. His poems have appeared in The Orange Room Review, The Eunoia Review, Toasted Cheese Journal, and Bird’s Thumb, among others.