Sunday, October 17, 2010

Weren't We?










For the cousins. In all their various 
forms. . . 






We were gonna make kites
from grocery store bags
Fly fast down snowy mountains
Catch fish bigger than us
Munch on strawberries
We stole from a garden
Eat snow ice cream
And
hold hands while we fell asleep
Weren’t we?

We were gonna swing
Until we were dizzy
And play football at every holiday
And raise chickens, but only eat their eggs
and have babies,
lots of ‘em
And
name ‘em made up names
Weren’t we?

We were gonna
play spoons
‘til our fingers bled
Dance on picnic tables
 in our cut-offs
And smear our faces
with lightening bug dust
To pretend our Indian blood glowed
Weren’t we?

We were gonna
get nerd tattoos
Drink pomegranate
wine we made ourselves and
lick salt of our wrists
before we snuck a sip
of our momma’s beer
And find out rainbows end at the 
base of our spine
Weren’t we?


We were gonna
Ride waves that
crossed time zones and
speak languages
That only we understood
wrap ourselves in ribbon
Dip our bodies in batter
and bake out on the lawn
And keep hoping
our blood wouldn’t be
trapped forever--

Until one said,
 I’ll take that one. 
And another said
 I’ll have that one
And we knew then,
we’d have to let go.

Wouldn’t we?

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