we were only both in second grade,
but Tommy was the first. . .

walked every spring morning
to my white house on the corner,

a sturdy steel fence
around our yard
with white painted corner posts
supported a steel mesh fence,

it protected us
from the neighbors' trash
protected our white house
from outsiders. . .

Tommy held my hand, and my friends
laughed at us. . . called us

chocolate and vanilla

me in my dresses from Jack and Jill,
ribbons hanging from my twin ponytails,

and Tommy in his dungarees and plaid long sleeved shirt, Opie Taylor haircut,

and he didn't care that he was
shorter than me . . .

then one morning on the way
to Westvale

Tommy stole a chocolate kiss
off the corner of my left cheekbone

second graders don't learn such things
in the 1960s

Emmett was killed for looking,
but nothing would happen to Tommy,
and I knew I couldn't tell my Mama

but somebody told, and from that day
on. . . Tommy took another way to school, or he moved, or somethin'

but nothing was the same except for our
innocent cultural transgression

and the with steel fence,
held together with its
white painted corner posts,
that kept the neighbor's trash
out of our yard,

. . .was now a yard
unwelcomed to outsiders

© 2004 by cynth'ya lewis reed
all reserved.

Cynth'ya Lewis Reed at the Authors Den