I Brought You a Rock (Puppy Love)

Lyrics

Second grade.
Jefferson Elementary.
The hour after lunch was a war for the swings.
But I had other business.

By the chain-link fence, behind third base.
That's where the good rocks were.
Not the gravelly stuff, all sharp and mean.
The keepers. The ones the creek left behind in the last big flood.
I spent twenty minutes on my knees.
My criteria were strict.
Not too big, had to fit a pocket.
Not too small, couldn't feel like nothing.
And then I saw it.
Grey, smooth as a worry stone, with one white line, a perfect stripe.
A planet with a ring.
A promise.

And all my courage went into my sweaty right hand.
Walked right past the kickball game.
Right up to you by the slide.
Sarah Jenkins.
I opened my fist and I said,
"I brought you a rock."

You had a red barrette in your hair.
You were arguing with Amy about whose turn it was.
The world stopped. Or at least my part of it did.
I'd rehearsed this.
I was going to explain the white line.
How it meant it was special.
How it was the only one like that in the whole school yard.
A geological miracle, just for you.
But all the words fell out.

And all my courage was just a warm, gritty stone in my hand.
Walked right through the middle of your argument.
Right up to you by the slide.
Sarah Jenkins.
I opened my fist and just said,
"I brought you a rock."

You stopped talking.
You looked at my hand.
You looked at my face.
You took it.
You didn't say thank you.
You didn't ask about the stripe.
You just closed your own fist around it and said, "My turn," to Amy,
and went up the ladder.
I never saw it again.
For all I know, you threw it from the top of the slide.
But that wasn't the point.
The point was the getting there.
The point was the weight of it, leaving my hand for yours.

A perfect transaction.
No terms. No conditions.
Just a planet with a ring.
I brought you a rock.
Yeah.