Summer of Whistles

We used to walk the railroad lines, Where summer would blaze and shine, Heating up the old steel tracks, Where we’d lose ourselves in time. We made whistles of metal scraps by hand, Till you found that dollar in the sand, And we lost the day to dreams and plans, But the can we kicked, it led us back. Echoes rang as we walked home, Two friends, together, but still alone, We’d learned the things that boys can’t show, Feelings not to be told. We reached my house first, as dusk rolled in, The wind tousled your hair, you grinned, I watched you run, my heart grew tight, As you vanished down the street, out of sight. With every step, my world grew small, Beneath the darkening night’s long fall, I never told you, though you could see, How much our friendship meant to me. Echoes rang as we walked home, Two friends, together, but still alone, We’d learned the things that boys can’t show, Feelings not to be told. That night, the rain was a lullaby, But I lay awake, wondering why, We never said what we both knew, That friends like us, they are so few. I dreamed of you with your dollar bill, Of sunlit tracks, and time stood still, Tomorrow would be clear and bright, But tonight I held my feelings tight. Echoes rang as we walked home, Two friends, together, but still alone, We’d learned the things that boys can’t show, Feelings not to be told. Tomorrow I thought, I’d find the words, To tell you straight what you’d not yet heard, But that night I wrestled alone instead, With words, unsaid, unsaid.