NEVER SAID.

A BOY AND GIRL IN 1962 AND LOVE

That summer of 62
on the school playing field

and she sitting there
with her friends

and you trying to impress
and taking in her smile

and bright eyes and the way
she sat with her knees visible

beneath the green skirt
and the white ankle socks

and the scuffed black shoes
and wanting to say love you

sweet thing but only coming out
with words about the weather

or the way her friend had her hair
tied back with the green ribbon

or how bucktoothed her
other friend was and even though

she’d told you so many times
she loved you and hugged you

on the way home from the school bus
you could never bring yourself

to say the words that sat
on your lips back then

and there are lonely nights
you wish you had those days again.