Never Said Poem by Terry Collett

That summer of 62
on the school playing field
and she sitting there
with her friends

and you trying to impress
and taking in her smile
and bright eyes and the way
she sat with her knees visible

beneath the green skirt
and the white ankle socks
and the scuffed black shoes
and wanting to say love you

sweet thing but only coming out
with words about the weather
or the way her friend had her hair
tied back with the green ribbon

or how bucktoothed her
other friend was and even though
she’d told you so many times
she loved you and hugged you

on the way home from the school bus
you could never bring yourself
to say the words that sat
on your lips back then

and there are lonely nights
you wish you had those days again.