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

There was always something beyond our field of view in those days.

The grown ups called it “playing pretend”

The others don’t believe it anymore,

But it was there.

In the last summer of magic,
 

I could see the ocean past the horizon

Made out of identical suburban houses.

The waves roared on the perfectly cut grass.

I could tell that it was the last summer that

The others would all put up with me.
 

And still,

After the neighborhood is empty

After we are all gone

The same plastic

Kiddie pool waves will keep lapping at the grass.