Old Neighbour

Old Neighbour

I catch a glimpse of an old neighbour,
someone who I only see
in  vague  and random memories
or the odd foggy dream snippet at night.

He looks different than I remember,
 once thick and wavy hair thinning at the top
but I know it is him.

 I watch him from across the parking lot
converse with the blue over-alled mechanic
who  dots his forehead with the black stained rag
he holds in one matching hand,
in between the bouts of laughter the two share.

A certain sadness falls  over me
as I scrunch down into the seat of my SUV, 
and realize how the  decades have unceremoniously  
folded over us,
changing and distancing...

Yet ,I know within his form,
now wider and shorter
than my stubborn mind will allow me to accept,
is the same lean, freckled faced boy
who lived next door to me,
who laughed and challenged life in a way few ever did ,
and to whom I pledged my undying love
when we were  seven.   

In me is still the skinny,
half toothless,  
messy- haired little girl,
who loved everyone and everything
with reckless freedom
and who danced and danced and danced,
to his raspy a capella,  
spinning in big  beautiful joy filled circles
under a perfect summer sky...
before ever  learning what fear was. 

Dale-Lyn  July, 2020