Summer of '85

Black corduroys, Converse, and rock t shirts

That’s what all the cool kids wore

Long hair, fake gold necklaces

Lying about everything you never did

Heading for 8th grade, upper class!

BMX bikes with checkered pads, cobra grips

Mag wheels and blue tires...so cool!

Early mornings, do your chores, work for the neighbors

Take your money and meet the guys along the way

Video games and cokes at the mall until you run out of cash

Keep your last dollar for smokes,

gotta distract the lady at the donut shop long enough so one of the guys can slip change into the cigarette machine and pull the handle

Head for the parking lot behind the park, have a smoke behind an empty ball diamond, too cool

My brother and I run to the bus station while the guys set up in the park

We let the air out of a tire and “beg” quarters for the phone,

Need to call our mom and get picked up...every women gives us change, most guys don’t

New earnings, lunch for the guys at the park

Hit the pool, nachos, hot dogs, cute girls, suntan

Head home, gotta beat dad for dinner!

Eat, wash, back out, meet those girls from the pool

Make out in the slides, play catch one catch all

“Home by the streetlights”was the rule, we’d all go home

Sneak out the window, meet the guys, sometimes those girls

Hide in the alleys, run from “the cops”

smoke some cigarettes with our shirts off so we didn’t smell

Sneak back in, hide our shirts in the laundry

My brother and I talk about the day and fall asleep planning the next

Summer youth, endless days

We always have this,

our youth,

our memories,

our beautiful innocence.