Mel Brake Poet Free verse

Boys and Fools Dedicated To Aunt Dorothy

When I was a boy I thought money grew on trees
I thought my mother could do everything

cook dinner for six children
buy me all the toys I wanted
and do my homework
which she would not

When I was a boy I thought my teacher as my father
I thought he would tuck me in at night

take me to the ball games
answer all my silly questions
and buy me all the banana splits I could eat


When I was a boy I thought as a boy
A five block radius in North Philly 
was my world 

I walked home from school for lunch
played with my brothers and sisters during the summers
and sat on the stump until 9pm
Go over Aunt Dorothy's for family gatherings

Next door neighbor lived alone and gave us loose chain
to buy candy and potato chips
I saw white people when my mother would take us
downtown to buy clothes for back to school

When I was a boy I thought as a boy
One time we put a stray dog in crate and threw it down
the basement of an abandoned house
We would later return to see if the dog had died
but it did not

When I was a boy I was afraid to die
and prayed to god that I would live to age 95

When I was a boy I thought I was a man
but men do not do foolish things

I think of the boys in my life
who think that they are men
but boys do not do foolish things

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