She sat still in her room, watching the seconds tick by on her laptop.
Her Facebook silent, her phone quiet, as she waited for that cute boy
from History class to reply. She looked outside and she felt nostalgic.

The sun shined and birds sang like
sirens seducing sailors.
She briefly sat and wondered,
where and when did it go wrong?
When did the children stop
going outside just to play?

When did days of lemonade
stands and bikes, of long walks and
baseball, of silly and quick,
dangerous games between friends,
ending only when parents
shouted loud into the night.
When did they end?

Nowadays, she sat idly by her iPhone. Even inside her school.
Her friends had also moved past that time. Grades, popularity, and of
course, keeping up with what’s trending, following celebrities and friends.

Back then, she did not care for
those actors she never met.
Back then, it was about fun.
About memories with her
friends, parents, siblings, who had
all moved past that time back then.

For the moment, she recalled
fondly, the sun on her back
The dirt she regularly
brought back home. The mud, the laughs,
the memories she held dear.
The days before she grew up.
When did they end?

She briefly thinks about riding her old bike again, for old time’s sake.
She clicks refresh one more time. One notification. From the boy in
history. “Cooler than history,” she thinks. She sat still in her room.