April 6, 2012
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blue-eyed truth
npm day 6 and bluemooncat enormous thing 12. a lie you were told in childhooda brown haired tomboy had two best friends
the blond skinny boy next door, exactly a week younger, but a year ahead in school because he started school in the east and she did not. the other boy, a beautiful boy, eyes bluer than the bluest summer sky and freckles, she still loves freckles. a sweet boy with no mother just an oddly sad, distant father and two younger siblings who didn’t like her. these three played touch football even though her mother said young ladies don’t play football with boys. who wants to be a young lady anyhow. and they played rundown. both games in the yard next door near the woods where the blond fell out of tree and broke his arm and where the bad boys from down the street did things she didn’t know about. and they played that game with the ball and bat in the cul-de-sac. it was one summer day when the blue eyed boy who never let her say anything negative about herself ever that one summer day he told her something she didn’t believe even less than the nice things he must have said before. and she must have left the game. and she must have talked to her mother, the one who said young ladies don’t play football who apparently didn’t think young ladies should know what the neighbors told their children: that sometimes the stork doesn’t deliver babies to the woman they call mother. she was much too old to not know. there are all kinds of lies.
Comments (24)
It feels sad but I love it, somehow just the tone, the lilt to it, carries weight and the picture is so powerfully reminiscent. I never was much good at football, but I always won at keep-away.
i just fell into this so easily. comes at you from up front and then from behind, and blatantly blindsides you….from both sides. then evens out. hell yeah let’s play some baseball.
I never wanted to be a young lady. But I didn’t play football. I played that game with the ball and the bat. But not in a cul-de-sac, because I lived on a kind of busy street. It was the backyard for us.
I like that this just screams childhood to me. I like that childhood is something we all have in common, even if the details of time and place are a little different.
I recall vividly watching young adults–gals and gals, playing football in a nearby field. I thought it looked wonderful, but since I was a teen boy, I wondered what it was like tackling a girl. lol They did not seem concerned with that, but really enjoyed playing.
I liked the tone and flow of your poem.
frank
Good one. You really captured it all here.
Very engaging. Congratulations.
“there are all kinds of lies” Enjoyed reading your work this morning. Off to Cincy tomorrow morning for a couple of days.
So are ya sayin ya don’t play football any more?
@Kellsbella - shoot. i would. i used to throw a mean spiral thank you very much. i feel like playing catch this afternoon until my shoulder breaks off and my catching hand is on fire.
@promisesunshine - Dang! The only thing I can throw is a party. Oh, and a hissy fit.
@Kellsbella - parties not so much. but i can do hissy fit. prize winning.
@vexations - thanks. enjoy your trip.
@curiousdwk - i’m glad you were engaged.
@Bricker59 - ha. finally something you liked.
@ANVRSADDAY - thank you, frank. tackling the older girls. nice visual.
@be_the_rain - your comments are always such poetry. you make me smile.
i wish i could remember what we called that game. but then again, this morning, i can’t remember anything. oh. yes. took me a minute to remember my name. (scarily. not making that up.)
@lanney - stream of consciousness. i swear it just comes out as it comes out. i have nothing to do with it.
@leaflesstree - i still can’t be taken nice places.
Very well played! I’m glad I never told those lies… just the one about being all seeing (eye in the back of my head)! hehehe
@murisopsis - but that isn’t a lie.
You write so beautifully of the things of life. They come from a heart that has felt and experienced much.
Easy and lovely. From the first word, I was captivated.
@ZSA_MD - i’m fond of “a” too. seriously, though, thank you. it just came out.
@songoftheheart - thank you, jo. you give lovely compliments.
I’m so glad I found this and don’t know how I missed it! My Xanga is so sporadic and random lately. Too much clutter in the inbox, I think, because I keep missing beautiful stuff from people I like. Anyway, enough about me. Love your poem.
I think I’ve said enough about lies and truth these days already. 
@ordinarybutloud - well, you know what they say about truth.
@promisesunshine - INDEED. I KNOW WHAT THEY SAY.
@ordinarybutloud - i found a hornet’s nest.
I really enjoyed this
@wretched_epiphany - thank you