Remember When by H.J. Bender

For the greatest friend I'll ever have in this life.

Remember on that summer night
When we filched my mother’s fags,
Ran down in the woods, lit up and dragged,
Gagged and hacked
And buried the thing by the tree-house?
You put rocks up on top
Of it like a grave
Just in case the dead cig became
A nicotine zombie.
Wasn’t that great?

Remember that night slugs invaded the pool
And we armed ourselves with table salt,
Went out and seasoned the whole lot
Of them? We heard them sizzle.
That was cool.

And do you recall the day
We went down the vent at UGA
And the air turned on and we ran like hell
Out of there so fast we left flames in our wake?
Gee, that was swell.

Remember Star Wars on the big screen?
We talked out loud and we cheered and we screamed
And we were the only ones in the theatre, save three
And you ate too much chocolate and were ill, I think?
Those were good times.

Remember when we rode our bikes
Around the ‘hood and you almost got creamed
By the Dashing UPS Man as you flew by with a scream
In a blur, singing the background vocals to “Help”
While I sand the lead?
That was psyched.

Remember our reunion at Taco Bell?
We saw each other and, holy hell,
I don’t think we left each other’s side since then.
Except for when
You went to New York,
The farthest from me
That you’ve ever been.

Remember the game we were at one night
When I choked on my nachos
And you saved my life?
You gave me a good hard pat on the back
So hard that I threw up, in fact
And we watched those nachos splat
All over the concrete. Awesome.

I don’t have to ask if you remember the summer of ninety-five
That was really all that kept me alive
After the crash in ’01 when the car rolled eight times.
I lay in my hospital bed with you at my side,
Holding my hand as I lay there all broken.
I think you were the reason I even survived.

Remember when we first moved into our flat
And we ate Taco Bell on the floor and we laughed
At every single word that we spoke?
Like about the poor hobos getting poked
With tasers, and we all nearly choked
On our nachos again. Wow, imagine that.

These memories grow dearer as years pass us by
And slowly we move ahead with our lives.
I love you more each day
And I remember to pray
That we can sit together in our old age
On a porch in the summer at the end of the day,
Reminiscing about the good times we’ve had.
And maybe you’ll still play piano for me
And we’ll talk about all of our old-timey things.
And we’ll watch the sun set.
That would be grand.

…hey, do you remember when we first met?
Me, neither.
We were too young, I guess.