Rachaels Picks

The Boy Next Door

Do you remember

Many years ago

When were young

How we use to play together?

Everyday?

It seems like yesterdays

The childhood world

Of clowns and cotton candy

And the summer days

That never seemed to end

When we played hide n' seek

From four o' clock to dusk

Then sat outside on someone's porch

And listened to the crickets

And slapped away mosquitoes

And talked about our dreams

And what we'd do when we grew up

Until our mothers called us in

And do you remember

That one winter when it snowed

For days and days on end

And we tried to build an igloo

Like the Eskimos?

Or when we made a game

Of raking leaves

All up and down the street

Until we'd made the biggest pile

The world has ever seen

And then we jumped in it!

Or how the time
We gathered apples

From your yard

And sold it to the neighbors?

And the grand day when finally

The training wheels came off our bikes

And we were free

To explore the world

In an afternoon

So long as we stayed

On our own street

But those days passed by furtively

And we grew up, as children do

Until we reached a day when we

Assumed we were too grown up

To play amid the trees on summer nights

And when i see you now

You have changed in ways i cant explain

You're like a rose that blooms before its time

And falls victim to

The February frost

And your face is pale and green

You do not look well

I see you scowling at the street

From the window in your room

Its so rare to see you smile anymore

And when a truck pulls up outside

You run downstairs and out the door

With a suitcase in ur hands

And the truck speeds away

And the boy next door is gone

And long once more

For the summer days

When i stood on ur porch

And bangged on your door

And begged you to come outside

To greet the afternoons adventures

Won't you come out to play, once more?

For we are still so young

-R.E.C.