By Mark A. Leon

In my neighborhood

Boys played ball til the last glimmer of daylight
While the girls dreamed from their windowsill of their star athletes shining under the Friday night lights

We wore our Chiefs jackets with pride and waved our flags on the Fourth of July
Basketball in the park, drinks deep in the woods, making out wherever we could

Cheers from the soccer field heard far and wide
Mothers calling from the windows rounding up their children scattered outside
Neighbors were friends til the very end
Streets were quiet
Our doors never locked
In my neighborhood

Mischief filled the Autumn air as the leaves painted a rainbow covering our yards ushering in signs of cold to come
Winds of change or so it seemed
Winters raged in a white powdery wonderland
Snowball fights, castles high into the sky and Christmas lights lit up the star lit night
Hark the Herald Angels and Jingle Bells

We traded up the first cards of the season
Loitered from Mario’s to the Quick Check on the corner of Durban and Heaven
We shoveled driveways and grudged the sidewalks and prayed for the warmth of Spring to appear

April rolled in, a joyous time
A musical, a race or maybe a dip in the lake for just a short time
Sneaking a kiss or a sip of whiskey was alright

It was the end of another school year
No more teachers, no more books
Three months of nothing but those skinny bikinis and adolescent boy looks

Soon the fall would come a day, where we would return to stay.
One day, one year, one blink of an eye, a gown, a hat and no looking back

We went away, wishing we could stay just after Graduation Day

In my neighborhood
In my neighborhood, nothing ever happened and that was okay