Neighborhood Sidewalk

[couchgrouch]

Neighborhood SidewalkI missed my ride home, on election dayso I took a long walk, a little out of my wayweeds grown up through the sidewalk, brown leaves on browner grassand like the leaves of Autumn, time was blowing pastbut I recalled me n Becky, how we were grounded for weeksafter scratching our initials, in the fresh concreteof our neighborhood sidewalkwhen I had mismatched socksand torn-up Converse hightopsthe zit on my foreheadlooked angry n redand other kids called me cyclopsthings that seemed so awkward thenfelt like youthful grace after walking againon the neighborhood sidewalkthe curb had long crumbled, where young Sam useta sithe had a poor fam'ly, and felt shy around other kidswhere pig-tailed girls played hopscotch, rain had washed away the chalkthe bus-stop where big Joe bullied, smaller boys on the blockour days keep going, but are never really gonesomehow I heard their footsteps, behind me onthe neighborhood sidewalkold junkers up on blockscos Jose was a driveway mechanicwhere Mr. Wilson useta spoonweekend afternoonswith his late wife in their hammocknow he just spoons lonely yearsI saw him there in tearsfrom the neighborhood sidewalkI heard Joe got a fat lip, from a truckstop waitressthat he waited twenty hours, in line to see the Matrixbut Sam was a flower in the sidewalk, that managed to sproutI voted for him as Mayor, in the old firehousewhen I got home that evening, I felt sixteen years oldso I took my wife Becky, back for a strolldown the neighborhood sidewalk(c)2005 Robert George