so easily I forgot lifting
the sandbox in Arizona and catching
the geckos and keeping them as pets
in a halloween candy's jack-o-lantern
their tails would fall clear from their bodies
and we'd shriek and we'd run from them
keep on playing
playing
my sister
she is with me
even when we are apart
we were wading through the water
flashlights flickering in the dark
climbing the laundry post in the tomato garden
spying on the neighbors swimming
laughing
we were laughing
that night
in Maine I met my best friend
talking til 7am
realizing we were both afraid of the notion
of having our brains be in the body of a whale
in the ocean deep where the light don't reach
and I loved him instantly
I knew we would keep talking
talking
on that drive
up the winding mountain roads
from Hudson to Vermont in the season's first
snow, the boys asleep in the back of the car
we were in the front we were singing along
to every word of the songs that helped make us who we are
at the top of our lungs
singing
singing
my mother
my mother she keeps a journal
of her childhood memories as they return
my favorite's the story recounting when she
saw an eagle with a fish in its mouth
she was ten and she wrote it down
there's a sweetness in us that lives long past the dust
on our eyes once our eyes finally close