This poem was written by me in spring of 1995 during my senior year in high school, and I submitted it as an entry for West Valley College's poetry competition around the same time.

Where Six Roads Met


Motorcycles roared past
zoomed by --
The thick summer air
wrapping around us in thin mist.
Helping Nguyen sell cigarettes
I leaned back in the creaking metal chair
to soak in the street curb's life,
the soft hum of talk and laughter,
with the velvety nuzzle of my golden collie,
Bibo, on my lap.

Those last days in Vietnam.
My childhood.
Funny how
The small things stay.

Charles Peterson, The Summer Place