031815   031824

Our backyard had a circle for a swimming pool
mom hired men to remove the sod and level the dirt with a rake.
My question was whether to mow around it or mow across
as if the circle hadn’t been cut.
We moved to Columbus before the pool was installed 
when we moved from Springfield we left our neighborhood stayed
Cindy Higgins one of her brothers was killed in Viet Nam
Mrs. Hayes my 3rd grade teacher smelling of old cigarettes
Audrey with kids Sharon Glen and maybe some younger
Bobby Diegel whose yard had a cement basketball court and
a picnic table to watch the portable TV set outdoors
Mark Finnegan who was kind and the best baseball player
Dick Williams who had psoriasis of the scalp and red hair
Richard Cherry whose high school sister was in trouble
Vicki whose parents had a Montego with a flat rear window
Denise Williams, Patricia Fultz, Leanne, and Melody
a revisionist would have girlfriends of them all.
We moved away during 7th grade
but this poem is about memories as unfinished as the swimming pool.