Bud Litzenburg
(1987)
Appeared in "Play Ghost,"
number 2, p. 10 (published by DIS Associates, Boston)
Bud Litzenburg!
I cried into a childhood memory!
You were my first unrequited
love!
I sat on the merry-go-round,
And dragged my red rubber boots
in the dust,
Hoping that you would hold
my hand at recess.
(I later found that you had
gone to my
best friend's house on a Saturday.)
Good-bye Bud! I said.
Carla Sloan! Cheryl Yenser!
I have a picture of us in fifth
grade.
We laughed because the photographer
wanted our image.
You both must be 26 now.
I have moved away!
We have grown up and married!
You were town kids, I lived
in the country,
My piano lessons were in town
though,
And we would walk to the teacher's
house together.
You remember!
If I could forget them, I would.
I am tired of the ghosts of
unfinished friendships.
Diane Graham! Joan Woodard!
Perhaps you have written poems
about me!
Alvin Toffler said this would
happen.
Best of luck to the nuclear
family!
But I want that last game of
Red Rover,
My last Captain May I?
*****
The Poetry of Vonne Barnett
