Best Friends

I wasn’t

progressive

conservative

politically conscious

or astute

I was a little child

but I knew about best friends.

My parents received a letter

offering me a chance to transfer

to a better school

a white school

May May didn’t get the letter

I wouldn’t go.

I wasn’t 

progressive

conservative

politically conscious

or astute

I was a little child

but I knew about best friends.

A Memory

We held hands

walking home from school

swaying back and forth

bumping shoulders.

Best friends

very, very smart

our science project:

astronauts.

We painted the round fish bowl

shiny silver

but only had toy soldiers

as astronauts.

Then

Kennedy was assassinated.

We stopped.