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All the Same

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All The Same
David J Walker
 
My neighborhood
Was filled with children 
All the same
Every freckle every name and
Every game we played on the
Playground after school
We were all the same
 
Ok 
there were David’s and Jimmy’s
And Billy’s and Susie’s and Janie’s and
Lucy’s and an odd boy named Kirk and a
Brown girl named Latisha and her little
Brother Pablo who were Spanish and 
Spoke English like a language 
They didn’t know
But other than that we were all the same
 
Ok, 
some boys were towheaded  and 
Some girls had golden curls and 
The rest had brown locks except for Chris
Who was cursed with fire engine Red hair
Like his mother and big
Buck teeth, with which when dared, 
he could open a pop bottle of Orange Crush
But other than that we were all the same
 
Ok, 
some had different last names than their
parents and someone would whispered 
“Divorced you know” as if it was catching 
Like the mumps or measles
so I hid my secret about the
Older Brothers and Older Sisters and the
Other Wives and other Misters my
Mother and Father had known some time 
Before I was born
It was all confusing because they didn’t 
Seem to like us or talk like us or look like us
But other than that, 
we were all the same 
 
Ok 
My Mothers name used to be Rosy during
The War and she made airplanes that
My father flew in and used a big gun to
Shoot down the “Nazi Bastards” who killed
A lot of his friends 
Everyone could recite the words they heard 
About the war when they didn’t know  
We were listening
Dad said everyone prayed they would get home
But he doesn’t pray anymore 
And even though he was a flyer Mom said 
He curses like a sailor 
So, we were all the same 
 
Ok
some friends were Baptist’s, and some were Catholics 
and some were Methodists and Dad, who would go to Church
on Easter, said the man two houses down 
who drove a Bread Truck  during the week 
was a parttime preacher on Sundays
for House full of Holy Rollers 
and I asked if that meant they prayed on skates?
But other than that we were all the same
 
Ok
There was this Jewish girl named Ruth 
and little her sister Sarah who didn’t believe
in Jesus and didn’t get presents at Christmas 
and everyone said they were going to Hell 
even though they were nice girls and
their father was a Doctor who spoke German
and their Mother was a Blonde lady from
Someplace called Ukraine
Who taught History at the college on the
Other side of town
Other than that
            We were all the same
 
Ok
Except for the ones who still had their tonsils 
Or couldn’t ride a bike 
And hadn’t learned to swim 
And didn’t like baseball
whose mothers were afraid to 
let them play red rover or tag
in the park until after dark
            Like the rest of us
Who were all the same


Ok
I didn’t forget the kids of color
Because
We didn’t know any 
They had to live in their own
Side of town
And never came down to the
Parks where we played …
They couldn’t come to the schools
Or churches where we prayed 
But That’s the way it had to be 
We were told 
And wasn’t our fault 
And not our own blame that
We had no way to know that
We weren’t all the same

Copyright © David Walker | Year Posted 2021

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