Moving Day

(For Alicia "Lisa"  Daniel)

by Doreen Ambrose-Van Lee

As next-door neighbors we made a clubhouse by connecting screen doors

We played checkers, Old Maid and Uno and you always kept the score

Your mom was very strict and wouldn't let you leave the ramp

We made the best of it until I went off to summer or winter camp

Often, I accompanied you and your mom to church and bible study

We were inseparable we were like Laverne and Shirley busom buddies!

When we realized our initials DA and AD were transposed

We made a game of it and each morning when we saw each other

We'd yell them out... okay... at the time it seemed funny I suppose.

We lived in #409 and #410 near the elevator and stairwell

You loved to recite stories and goodness the jokes you'd tell!

On some weekends we'd listen to my mom playing Sam Cooke

We'd dress our dolls as we sat side by side in our little nook.

If I live to be a hundred and ten, I will never forget the good ole days,

Just as I will never forget when you came and told me you were moving away