Bits and Pieces

Remember That?

The little girl in the moving picture

laughs and smiles

her buck teeth immediately catching

the attention of my eye

I feel my own teeth now

So much has changed and so much

has been left

An unfinished masterpiece

that the painter keeps adding to whenever

inspiration hits

She plays with her friend

her friend with the strawberry blonde hair

cut short unlike the rest of the girls

and with freckles not only on her face

but everywhere

Her name was Ruby

The girls laugh and smile

and the one with brown hair and buck teeth

has no notion of the time that is running out

No, no one died

not literally

Once the brown-haired girl moved away

she saw Ruby once more

the summer before fifth grade and it was as if

nothing changed

Sure

Ruby was older, more mature

Her hair was shorter than before

and her British accent seemed stronger somehow

I had been away for so long

I had forgotten

But after that

I thought of Ruby less and less

and my brain made way for new friends

Those words "best friends forever"

never did mean much anyway

at least not to me

forever is only as long as a nine-year old

can conceive

and forever does not take into account

moving and new people

and new places and peer pressure

and change

I went to a middle school where I knew

not one person

and I made approximately two friends

during the year and a half I was there

It hurt to leave them too

once I moved again

this time across the country