Boy Next-Door Poem by William Kofoed

We did live on a long street street
in small houses each the same
fronted with lawns green and square
and sidewalks of cold hard concrete

all young families just starting out
moms and dads and children each
all brought together by circumstance
friendships to form and grow sweet

young girls and boys to run and play
some of each of every age
to form friendships of shared likes
and common bonds that might be

and he was years older than me
tall and gangly across the street
and my friend he was not
but every day I did see him

we did grow both older and tall
and with our friends we all did play
young and old had different games
and together we did not play

from childhood changed into our teens
and as we grew we both did dream
of all the things that we might do
and of all the things we might be

till the day the country did call
and the day that he went away
to a land most far away
and never again did we meet

and at home I watch the news
of the war so far away
and I did not really understand
of where he went and what he did

somehow empty I did feel
somehow had lost a part of me
a piece of youth not to be reclaimed
a empty longing left inside

in our hometown now stands a wall
and many names it does contain
and one of them is for him
and see you in it I do cry

I do not truly understand
for we were never truly friends
and together we never did play
he just lived across the street