a pond by my parents house

it's just a pond
that somehow
has been collecting water
all these years.

it wasn't near much.

the neighbors
in the development
a few blocks away
would simply just walk
their dogs
or their spouse
around this very pond.

that's all
it was used for.

back then,
in highschool,
i worked at the grocery store,
in a strip mall
only a few blocks away.

mike and i would punch out
on break
and smoke weed
in one of our cars.

we were stoned
before we returned
to either facing shelves
or stocking
the dairy section.

i also had a girlfriend.
her
and i
would park right before that pond,
go underneath that tiny bridge
and smoke even more weed
and mess around.

after highschool
and after that girl,
i never even learned
how to live
in the same town
for more than four years.

i moved
from state to state,
out west,
city to city,
like it was some goddamn obligation
to my country.

i never thought twice
about this pond.
i hardly thought about the girl,
or even the weed, or mike
for that matter.

i was just moving.

then
about 18 years later
i'm at this wedding,
for one of my highschool friends.

i'm standing there,
on the patio of a six story
marriott hotel,
the same hotel
where all the out of town guests
and people in the wedding
are residing, for at least
that one night.

i notice that pond.
and it is it,
a time machine,
with the same grass,
with the same water,
and mud beneath
that water,
as it was before.

it's like nothing grew here
but the concrete buildings
that overshadow
this very pond,
since the time
of when there was highschool.

i grab the girl
whom i messed around with
on an earlier bridge,
where the bride and groom
exchanged their vows
in front an audience,
in front of a representative
of god.

that girl
was at the after party
at this hotel,
on the very shores
where i partly
grew up.

i grabbed her arm
and walked her down there.

i wanted to go underneath
that very same bridge
only 100 feet
in front of us
and smoke some of her
weed.

it didn't work out like that,
instead we talked
and only made out,

this is not how it used to be.
it never is.