we walked down our old neighborhood
the one that sells candy
and ice cream
and sand box dreams
out of the white van
the one that tucks
lollipops
abandoned tricycles
stray children
into its belly
and strangers
cast shadows
over our strollers
and our mothers beam
at the cooing
and we
we are smiling
compiling new faces
to someday star in our dreams
then we blurt out our
favorite word
“no” to the bullies
who dogged our tiny footsteps
and kicked over our sand castles
“no” to the bullies
just ten years older
and ten times more dangerous
who don’t follow us during recess
but into the recesses of alleys but that’s not who we were running from
rather, we were fleeing our childhoods
pursuing our goals
because we didn’t believe that
future and past
could coexist
in the same place
at the same time now, fifteen years later
we have returned
like monarchs fluttering back north
we have learned
that, like youth and maturity
like kindness and cruelty
what we leave behind
follows us anyways
just as our bullies did
and we choose to stay
– Mary O’Carte
Comments