Why did we stop our after school trips to JK's?
Do you remember that?
Sitting in that back
corner table,
soda swapping,
table hopping,
till we wandered back to to practice,
our giggles never stopping.
And why, tell me, why did we quit stage crew?
All those afternoons we let ourselves lose:
All the late nights in the light booth,
the crazy talks,
lifting props til our hands were blue
and we could barely walk.

Do you ever want to just go back
to that one moment
and freeze time?
We could just sit and watch,
maybe rewind
a few hundred times,
live again through every word, smile, and scene.
We used to babble and dream
about years to come,
from the next school dance
to the senior year dream,
but we never thought we would be looking back
on the hill-covered path,
with that one sharp turn
that we call "experience,"
the one that changed our lifes so drastically,
so permanently.
I wonder if just for five minutes,
things were the same,
the old ritual,
before we knew better,
before we had our place
Back when we lived for cast parties, and cute older guys,
Halloweens filled with pizza
and colored hair dye
When we lived for long texts discussions
and New Year's Eve,
afternoon movies and jumping in leaves.

Do you ever find those ratty old T-shirts
with the name of that first high school play?
Do you smile and remember opening night,
and all those rehersals
day after day?

Why did we stop our
Friday night routines?
Straight home from the football game,
running across the street
to fall asleep on the kitchen floor
and wake up wondering why we're so sore
Where did we give up on movie nights?
The ones that turn into basement fights,
wrestling and screaming til someone turns out the lights
and suddenly asks,
"Did anyone actually bring a movie?"