Because

because i miss you, because i love you and because i came across this today while cleaning. and yes, i know it wasn't quite like this but it is here because it should have been. (ZNJ)

childhood innocence

summer days we sat and swallowed watermelon seeds waiting

to see whose stomach would explode into ripeness

remember how you held a mirror to the sun

and asked me to shield you from the brightness

so often we interlaced fingers and recited nursery rhymes

from preschool days

days spent giggling, with you across the hall

always peeping through the opening looking at me

and me looking back

everyday we sat on the pier and you braided my hair

asking me to sit still so you could decorate me

with flowers we picked from the field

you tried to hold in your laughter from jokes that i told

and failed only to let giggles burst from lips

painted raspberry by cool Kool-Aid

and we would smile noticing our shadows disappear

into each other

while mosquitoes nibbled our legs and we refused to go home