to the girl i saw sitting alone on the picnic bench

 xxx

if there were ever a terrible line written, it has to be this:
the children have left
so says the concerte at the community pool
on a cool day in october when the cover is pulled
and the concession stand is empty save spiders and webs
and the chairs are all stacked in the place they were left
to rust in the sun until may
so says the mother in the house at high noon
in a place where too much sunshine spills through empty rooms
once covered in fingerprints and little girl bows
and growth charts in door frames and toy cars in rows
then college applications and scholarship hopes
graduation gown in the closet, love letters and notes
now freshly vaccuumed as she'd imagined all along
only now clean just feels like being alone
and so says the school bus, alone in the lot
to sit with the others that someone forgot
to wait in the blessed heat till summer is done
and the children will return with the first august sun
the white lines will follow as the bus travels south
holding the children while time will allow