Shortly after my 9th birthday
we moved into a home in a subdivision
where every house looked the same
I met the boy next door a couple of days after
He was younger, shy
but bristling with intelligence and humor
He might have been the first boy I fell in love with
Over summers, we spent most days together
talking about video games or role playing games or Depeche Mode
they were his favorite band
Sometimes we fought with his older brother
or played tackle football in the yard
I never saw his mother much
she always seemed to be working
I heard something about a divorce but I didn't know
what that really meant
His mom was often under the influence of alcohol
and she yelled at him constantly
Some days I'd knock on the door
and she'd say he was grounded
for some supposed slight
and so I'd knock on his bedroom window
which faced our yard
but was hidden by a fence
I'd sit on that fence and we'd talk for hours
Most of the time about nothing serious
Sometimes though, he'd trust me
with words about how he missed his dad
and how he loved his mother but
she was abusive while flush with drink
in 7th grade, a moving van showed up one day
and he was gone
Something about moving back to Carmel
I never heard from him again
I tried to find him on the internet
but I didn't have much luck
I'm not even sure I ever knew his real name
but I knew his story
and I knew I loved him
