Over a mango milk shake
meeting up after a long break

A man and a woman, in their twenties, took a journey back in time
to their school days when all they had was a dime

Nostalgia was hanging heavily in the air
memories were swinging in their mental rock chair

Night would soon be falling
conversation was flowing

They both put aside their adult masks
they wanted to feel like a kid again - with no adult to ask

For once from their grown-up routine they did budge
chatting about summer afternoons spent licking chocolate fudge

Catching up on their lives after they drifted away
gamely treating each other to truth/dare for play

He told her about the skirts he chased
she told him about the hearts she did break

They spoke of assets and liabilities as is the fashion
wondering if their emotional ledger needed a re-organization

Way back then fantasy, fun and frolic was their jargon
cut to now it was disillusionment, dilemma and delusion

They asked the maître d' how they could afford childhood again
money was every working class human's most necessary bane

He said – “You may never have the selling price of childhood's exorbitant market rate
but you can always loan it for a few precious moments by re-living it with a mate

The returns of borrowing your childhood for a while
is worth more than the cost of going that extra mile”

So they decided to meet up every now and then when a mate came by
to take off that mask and have a few laughs about the days gone by

Their glasses were empty and their hearts were lighter
frown lines became laugh lines and their faces became much brighter

When the maître d' came after a while to clear the table as was his usual task
he saw they had left behind something else with their tip - their adult mask!

In the same car that the man and the woman came in the dark
he saw a boy and a girl drive away as happy as a lark

"Maybe they are going back to school" - he thought, smiling at life's hand at work
and hopefully this time around they will do their homework!

To read the other poems please click here