The World Kept On Spinning

There was the willow tree out by the lake

Where I learned to kiss.

The lake was at the edge of town

So when my sister almost drowned me

And the birds sang my funeral hymn,

No one could hear the shouts.

I had my first date in the gas station on Emry Street

And he bought me a bunch of junk food.

He made it tradition for "our thing"

And the 5 a.m staff still know us by name. 

The convenience store on Parke Street

Is where I learned to love for the first time.

It was after a day of running over orange cones,

And low self-esteem.

It was a beat-up blue car

That barely ran through the town.

In the convenience store when the ac was blasting

And old pop songs played on the intercom,

We raced through aisles

Trying to find the things our parents wanted,

And maybe the little pieces of us

We had dropped years prior.

The community pool was at the edge of town.

It was right near the high school with its yellow doors.

The community pool was for the kids

Because the lakes were meant for us.

Yet in that little red shed

Behind the staff unit,

I learned to kiss again

As a boy slid his hands under my purple shirt.

The first time someone told me they loved me

Was at the edge of the Champion cul-de-sac.

I didn't ever say it back

Because I didn't know what it meant.

Instead, I watched them walk away 

To their house with a purple door,

Knowing I would see them in the blue halls of our school.

The prettiest boy I knew

Worked in the ice cream parlour on Dumas Street.

It was the town attraction,

Even when the days were negative below freezing.

The purple building

With its pale yellow door

Drew the eyes of the people all around. 

I went to the skate park near the community pool 

A total of five times exactly.

Only because I sucked at skating

Even though this one guy tried to teach me.

Plus after I fractured my wrist that one time,

My dear mother forbade it.

Yet I can still remember that stupid skate park,

And all the children with skinned knees.

I'm betting that blood still colours the ground

And screams still fill the air.

They tried to shut down that park once,

That plan crashed and burned

And the children went on with bruises and blood

Below their feet.

And the first time I fell in love,

Happened everyday I lived in that place.

I fell in love on the front porch swing 

In that house on Cedar Grove.

I fell in love on the Champion cul-de-sac

Even though I didn't say it back.

I fell in love under willow trees

Out by lakes where I almost died.

It's a nostalgic place to me.

I know my way around the ice cream parlour

Because I fell in love with the pretty boy

So I visited all days that summer.

I fell in love in so many places

And I never realized it until years later.

Soon I was in a foreign place

And the birds did not sing like they used to.

There were no pretty boys in brightly coloured ice cream parlours,

No 5 a.m staff interested in remembering my name.

No boys to kiss in community sheds,

No willow trees to make homes out of.

I learned too late that I first fell in love

Without ever realizing I fell in love.

And I fell in love a million times after that

On streets with different names,

On streets that never changed.

-Maisha E