I look at the names from back in 1964
and a slightly related memory of that time
comes back to me
I’m at a YMCA dance, and I spy a beautiful
red-hair girl, maybe a year younger than me
I ask her to dance and she accepts
I feel blessed and maybe a little unworthy
I’m so blown away by her red hair and her looks
I get tongued tied and cannot speak to her
months later three girls phone me
one of them says I danced with you once
I kiddingly replied, “You were lucky.”
the girls laugh and the one who said I danced with her
pays me back perfectly with a “No. You were lucky.
and tells me she was the red-hair girl
instead of telling her how I felt that night dancing with her
I just crack up laughing impressed by her comical comeback
but, damn, with hindsight I wish I had said to her
something like, I remember you. I remember how beautiful
you looked, and that I got so tongued dancing with you
that I was unable to speak, and you looked so beautiful that night
but, alas, that was just one of many things I should
have done differently back then, and I often wish I could
do a rewind, for example, good grades and going steady with that girl.
Bob Boyd