List lane glistened. Skinned knees and lying under trees. Reaching palms towards cascading greenery. Blackberry stained palms. Racing to the park your mom helped repaint ten years prior. Out of breath but never out of time- not until the sun sank behind the moon and the streetlight flickered. Night air wrapped its palms around us, calmly. I’m decades older and my mind is loud in different ways. It’s coiled around grief and growing pains that still hurt. It pushes and pulls and reminds me of every sacred moment as the last drops of girlhood seep from my pores. At least we once held it, gently still. It was ours to own like the dirt on the sidewalk we once swore was glitter. And as life showed its teeth we screamed back even louder. But life showed us gracefulness and longing and caring and hoping and girlhood. It’s showed us girlhood in the best of ways. The house stood calmly in a gentle breeze and we thanked it for hosting the best parts of the story. Watch sun stretched its arms out across list lane and I swore it glistened just one last time.

-AMT ©️