Summer played
in the scratches
of an old record
singing through
the screen wire
covering my
neighbor’s window.
One hundred degree
memories flushed
my cheeks with flashes
of a first kiss and
my body’s response.
Love was yet unspoiled,
star dusted with trust,
and a world where
only he and I existed.
I clung to sixteen
for a breath
to feel once again
what it felt like
to believe my heart
would never be broken.
Just as quickly as the
sun rose across my memory
it faded into silence
when the music ended.
Too many years
and broken dreams
wrapped themselves
around me suffocating sixteen.
I looked up at the sky wondering
if he ever looks at the moon and feels regret.
©Susie Clevenger 2012
Marian at Real Toads used the beautiful music
of Barbara Lynn as inspiration for our poems. It's Better To Have It
of Barbara Lynn as inspiration for our poems. It's Better To Have It
5 comments:
From all the friends who tell me some guy from way back when sent them a friend request on social media, I think it can safely be said that they do feel something.
ooooh beautiful, susie, in its specificity and its story, both. so universal and relatable. "suffocating sixteen," sigh.
Awww, this could have been me..I love your sweet memories of sixteen.. I have mine too and sitting on an old porch swing. I just absolutely love your poems..So beautiful.
That fourth stanza resonates with me... so true!
Such emotions these words have stirred. The slow suffocation of sixteen out of us, the ever-present moon on a hot summer night, the wonder: Does he ever think of me.
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