Chicken Soup For The Soul- Redone

The Girl Next Door

Do you remember

Many years ago

When we were young,

How we used to play together

Every day?

*

It seems like yesterday-

The childhood world

Of clowns and cotton candy

And summer days

That never seemed to end

When we played hide 'n' seek

From four o'clock till dusk

Then sat outside on someone's stoop

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 had ever seen

And then we jumped in it?

Or how about the time

We gathered honeysuckle

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 whole 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 that we were too grown-up

To play amid the trees on summer nights...

And when I see you now

You've changed in ways I can't explain

You're like a rose that blooms before it's time

And falls a victim to

The February frost.

*

Because the waist on your jeans is getting tight

Symbolic of a youth that's not your own

And your face is pale and green-

You don't look well.

I see you scowling at the street

From the window in your room,

It's so rare to see you smiling anymore.

And when a car pulls up outside

You run downstairs and out the door

With a suitcase in each hand

And the car speeds away

And the girl next door is gone.

*

And I long once more

For the summer days

When I stood on your porch

And banged on your door

And bade you come outside to greet

The afternoons adventures.

*

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

For we are still so young...

-Amanda Dykstra