Pavement chalk
Melted by rain
Many colors mixed together on the faded concrete.

Grass 
Brown and limp
Dried by the sun
Long and uncut.

A faded brick building
Moss and ivy all around.
Roof sagging into itself.

A single swing
Rusty with age.
Blue plastic bright against the gray sky.

A woman
Black sunglasses covering her eyes
Hair pulled up in a tight bun.
Her daughter sucking a lollipop 
Holding mother’s hand.

 “Mommy!” 
The little girl whines.
 “Why are we here?”

 “This was my school.”
The woman says stiffly
Gazing around at the tomb of her childhood

 “Huh. This doesn’t look like a fun school.”

 “Oh, it was.”

 “Can we go now?”

 “Yes.”

And in the last light of the dying sun
They turned and walked back to their car.
The woman’s sunglasses hiding her tears.

Behind them,
the school
Left in a cloud of exhaust.
A lollipop stick abandoned in the sand.
Like the memories of the children who once played there.