yellow butterweed along a gravel road
a rainstorm’s puddle splashed in the middle

Waking up on grandma-time
eggs fresh from the hen house, fried green tomatoes 
hair big from the humidity, hers and mine

sweetly sour blackberries
In the summer sun, not quite ripe

Running around in circles under hot hose water
shouting nonsense into the woods 
and thinking that’s why it’s called a hol...

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between bare-branched limbs of wintered trees
a bird's call echoes an old screen door

moss like tiny stars, huddle close together
bright-green, 
not yet swallowed up by the newness of spring

i want to lie down on the forest floor 
between layers of long-fallen leaves and decompose,
letting the earth and its creatures consume me

but, like the bird, 
i choose to be heard

and like t...

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double knotted laces
and pinky promises

run as fast as you can
my sweet sliver of golden light 

always looking for a place in this world
making jumps and landings

ride your bike with me to the tennis courts
hold our hearts for safe-keeping

i hope your smile is contagious 
and i catch it forever

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It's an eighty-degree day in May,
and the warmest breeze is blowing around me, and suddenly,
I'm brought back to you again. 

Always late. Sometimes, literally running.
Your dark curly hair tied behind your back.
Your sleeves pushed up to your elbows.

Your hands, covered with chalk and charcoal.
Squinting with your eyebrows pushed together.
Working out how to form shapes and lines.

I...

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hoping to soften the edges of your grief,
you join in on the ritual of participation:

put flowers in a vase,
walk until your legs ache

pull weeds from the garden,
and watch them grow back

look at the sky every chance you get,
until briefly, you forget

cry loudly and uncontrollably,
often in public, always to your best friend

use your expensive makeup,
no longer waiting for cel...

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pencils and hair ties
tennis balls, dropped by the dog
scraps of paper, dragged under by the cat

possibly the TV remote,
if it's not lost in the great abyss
between the cushions

Missing socks,
dust bunnies, maybe real bunnies
it's none of my business

things dropped and left
picked up and dropped again

always returning to
the graveyard behind the couch

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My key ring is full and so is my heart.

I hope you know what it’s like
to walk through a door and be put at ease.

When you don’t have to knock,
because the door’s always open
and the air says you’re safe here
in the scent of their laundry detergent.

To stumble over shoes, bigger-every-year,
making your way to your seat on the couch,
and at the table.

You know which drawer holds t...

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go ahead, be messy
leave crumbs on the counter
a spoon in the sink
the bed unmade
shoes kicked off by the door

let today unfold
like laundry on the floor
warm and soft and slow

say nothing of coulds
or shoulds
or wish-i-woulds

take a deep breath
and leave it all be

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spring ephemerals
popping effortlessly up
just past the surface

to lift our sorrows
and remind us all; goodness
comes around again

it lives in moments
we create in space and time
neighbors, friends, strangers

hold one another
make the goodness stick around
once, twice, forever

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relentless persistence
of comfort, unchanging

Merak, Dubhe, and Polaris

wished upon stars in a view caught from the top-bunk
of the room I shared with my sister

reliable 
consistent
unfailing

night after night
these stars intake
the same wishes I still make

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Looking up and up and up
pushing air in and out
seeking, searching
a way around
a way over
a way through

holding onto ill-spoken sentences
in the depths of my chest
heard years ago but
long forgotten by the giver

I remember to pay forward
only kindnesses

remember only kindnesses

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hour by hour I look up
and fall in love with something new

sunrise-to-sunset
showings of whispers and hues
pinks and then blues

an intricate dance
a natural lava lamp
broken egg yolks, mixed and poked

untethered, stretching, and reaching
across the biggest, brightest blue

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