a poem

I wrote this yesterday. For some reason, I felt this urge to go write in my old elementary school's playground. So I did. And this is what came out of it.

Way back when
I played here
Climbing up, sliding down
Friends were made on the playground
Alliances were formed
girls versus boys

I return here
years later
the alliances have been long forfeit
the girls and boys were all traitors
to their old second-grade teams;
And I return to the site of the battlefeild

I wonder
How many of my own
have been hurt because
boys were contaminated
with diseases that could
break your heart

I feel like I'm the only one in the world
who hasn't caught it yet

I see my old friend
come down the playground path
he left before the alliances
and only returned to see them shatter
does this mean
he's the one boy who is clean?

He passes me by without looking
and I know in that moment
he's infected too.