FOR A FRIEND
Just you and me and boyhood memories And maybe more remains. Not the first But the best of our lives Were spent fearlessly And painlessly in our innocuous home town. First grade, second grade; Miss Wheatley, Mrs. Schaefer; Funny How some things Cling To our memory. And the computer That was named after the principal. (You Always could remember The name.) Your laugh was deep, Loud and deep, And always sounded Far too forced. Only I could tell.
Can you remember our debut? The first grade performance of a lifetime. You were Benny Bookworm, "Stories are my thing," And I was the letter "M." (You Were always The star.) With "deely-boppers" (They didn't call them that then) And an aquamarine cellophane body (How hard it was to find that) You looked more Like a crinkly-crackly walking iceberg Than a fairy tale bug. But looks are deceiving.
Guppies. The stream, or rather trickle behind your house Where we would fish with Home-made nets, replacing Each guppy With a memory. (We Caught millions.) I wonder into how many rivers Does our stream flow. (Hundreds Of millions.) 'It ain't a big stream. (Don't say "ain't). Your driveway, Site of the innumerable Head-to-head Down to the wire Games. You with your Spalding hockey stick And goalie pads (No fair, you play on a team), And me with only my determination On the baking, beaten blacktop, (I never knew hockey was a year round sport). I never could manage to top you. Year after year, Goalie for our local team And no missing teeth! (You Were always The athlete.) We climbed The crab-apple tree in your yard And shook the branches Until the not quite ripe apples Speckled the patches of tawny, dried-out lawn. You always did manage To climb higher And shake harder Until You moved away.
Our little town, No longer harmless, Left me to wonder (I Was always The thinker.) And we visited Once or twice. Well, once. Your Mom's baked red snapper was delicious, As always. But there were more important Things Than the hockey stick, Or the guppies, Or the computer, (Whose name You Always could remember) And We also moved away. When I last saw you (You still play hockey) More than half our lives Had been spent apart. Yet, (Dinner? I'd love to!) Somehow, (You're still goalie for a local team) More than half our lives Have been together. (I Am still The thinker.) And, if not always the same, We will always be a pair.
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