Sta.sh
"Let's Play Pretend"
When I was a kid I used to play pretend
Oblivious those times would one day end
I would pretend I was an astronaut
Exploring deepest space
I'd use my pillows as a rocket ship
And the blankets as the caves
Sometimes I would imagine
That I was on TV
I used a box as the frame
And cut a hole for a screen
I would always swing a bat
Pretending that I played
Baseball in the sun
While drinking lemonade
I always thought I was a doctor
With my plastic stethoscope
Healing all the animals
With cotton and some soap
I would pretend I was on stage
Strumming air guitar
Singing in a microphone
Into a sea of endless stars
I would always play charades
Pretending that I was
Someone who I wasn't
For reasons just because
Like a famous comedic actor
Or the king of France
Or an army soldier
Let the troops advance!
I turned water balloons into bombs
And trash can lids into shields
My street became a battleground
Sometimes an open field
Everything I wore
I pretended gave me powers
Like shoes that added speed
Or a ring that gave me valor
I would dress up as a Power Ranger
With my Megazord
Or sometimes a Ninja Turtle
Whatever I could afford
When I would take a bath
I'd pretend that under me
Was a sea with hidden temples
And a mermaid had the key
When it snowed I always crafted
A fort with all the flakes
And guarded my kingdom proudly
From the hills with all the snakes
I played with action figures
And made up my own scenes
I acted out all the parts
Because only I knew what they'd mean
There were monsters in the sofa
And behemoths in the fridge
I swear I slayed the ogres
Who lived under that bridge
I made puppets with a flashlight
Shining in the dark
There were creatures of all kind
My favorite was a shark
The list goes on forever
As my imagination grew
But what I never thought would happen
Would sadly have come true
I'm not the kid I was
And I let go of all those dreams
But I never lost this person
I'm happy being me
And my imagination
Doesn't have to end
I'll always be inventive
I'll always play pretend
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..... i luv it because it relates to me so much 
miss those childhood memories....
I could very well see this as something in a story book with pictures because of the light simple vocabulary. But standing alone as written text alone, the strength of this piece is not weak but at the same time not fierce. It is in a gray area that holds it as simply a poem with good meaning.
Something to consider: There are over 15 different examples of what one might’ve done as a kid with a strong imagination. It could be seen as excess, but most of all it has a redundant feeling. Personally I don’t see any of the examples as noticeably weak. And the specific choice of mentioning power rangers and mutant ninja turtles helped focus sentimentalizing with a certain reader. The problem with its redundancy is that it can bore the reader before it reaches the final words which in this case were excellent.
This has the feeling of a comfortable childhood theme that countless people remember in their own minds. Of which could be seen as sometime against the norm (or a norm) that doesn’t present the dark theme of terrible pasts that we would be obliged more or less to pity, but something to reflect upon with nostalgia.
Speaking of nostalgia being portrayed in this, I once read a book that mentioned the feeling of nostalgia and interpreted it as masked rage. Underneath the tender feelings of better days is the torment of them being gone mixed with bitterness that forms a kind of melancholy.
In that case I received this poem as having deeper than normally recognized meaning.
Based off this poem’s format on here, the last stanza looks too much like a cluster that needs breaking down. And somehow I felt you saw this coming eventually.
Take this as merely a suggestion, but they would be best as 3 separate stanzas. The reason why is because it is a giant outcast among the other stanzas size wise. Also, although all those lines you have in that stanza are more related to each other than to the rest above it, they have a distinct turn in direction of thought. An example of this is when you spoke of your imagination no longer there and then you spoke of it not being the end. Yet another reason why they should be separated into 3 different stanzas is because they need that ‘emotional breath’.
The originality was good, as well as the format and technique. The title was engaging and had the ability to ‘hook’ in a reader. It was overall a good and memorable poem.
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