A little girl stopped me today
By that old wooden playground
the one where the planks are falling from their swings
and the green slide is all out of place

She grabs my hand
"Who am I?" she asks
Searching my face desperately for an answer
She has ringlet curls and holds a ***** tan teddy bear under her arm
Yes, who have you become
"We could play" the girl weasels, pulling on my arm
pointing toward the crumbling playground
I can only shake my head no

"Don't forget about me, okay?" she sighs
"I want to be a doctor when I grow up, I want a pet bunny and I want to
eat ice cream for breakfast on all of my birthdays"
Her eyes are starry with dreams, she runs beyond the playground to chase a comet

I stare at the boards on the ground, and I see not the plank of a pirate ship,
but a broken swing
I run behind the girl
Frantically trying to gather up all of the dreams she dropped in her hurry
They slip through my fingers and get harder to see

I find myself repeating the girl's advice to myself
"Don't forget about me"
*Don't forget about me