Bud Litzenburg! (1987)
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 12:08AM Bud Litzenburg!
I cried into a childhood memory!
You were my first unrequited love!
I sat on the merry-go-round,
And dragged my red rubber boots in the dust,
Hoping that you would hold my hand at recess.
(I later found that you had gone to my
best friend's house on a Saturday.)
Good-bye Bud! I said.
Carla Sloan! Cheryl Yenser!
I have a picture of us in fifth grade.
We laughed because the photographer wanted our image.
You both must be 26 now.
I have moved away!
We have grown up and married!
You were town kids, I lived in the country,
My piano lessons were in town though,
And we would walk to the teacher's house together.
You remember!
If I could forget them, I would.
I am tired of the ghosts of unfinished friendships.
Diane Graham! Joan Woodard!
Perhaps you have written poems about me!
Alvin Toffler said this would happen.
Best of luck to the nuclear family!
But I want that last game of Red Rover,
My last Captain May I?
(published in "Play Ghost," number 2, p. 10 [DIS Associates, Boston], 1987)
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