And the Message Said

I got a very old text message today. 

I remember when it was sent many yesterdays past. 

It dropped down from the top of my screen in a little box, 

but I didn’t tap it in time, and it slipped away. 

 

The message smelled like chlorine from a hotel pool that I swam in once, 

and that I’ll never see again, 

and it looked like a messy room full of silly secrets 

and FaceTime calls with people  

whose final image in my head was taken from a U-Haul van, 

 

and the message said come play with me, 

and the message said he’s not my friend, 

and the message said what if we get in trouble? 

and the message said I don’t say this a lot, but 

and the message said we’re not little anymore, but 

and the message said someday we can be little again, 

 

and the message said I love you. 

wph

VT

16 years old

More by wph

  • Poetry

    By wph

    Misfit Kid Summer

    I look at the empty kiddie pool in my backyard

    In the Midwest summer

    My friends used to come to my house

    So they could all get in it,

    But they don’t like to swim much anymore

     

  • Essay

    By wph

    I Am Someone Who

    I am someone who is waiting on a dock in the middle of the night. There is a gross, green electric light shining on me. There is something out in the waves.