Freckled

My first best friend
was Charlie Lumly
when I was four
and he was four
I can still see his face
it was always dirty
or maybe it was only
freckled in which case
it was always freckled
in the house next door
where he lived until
he moved away
to another country
or maybe it was only
Pennsylvania
in which case it was a state
with a name like another country
and I never saw him again
though for a long time
I dreamed about him
because I think I loved him
or maybe it was only
a backyard kind of
dirty-kneed lust
that revives as soon
as someone else
named Clayton or
Cleveland moves
in next door