What 14 years looks like:

sometimes I breathe in 
and forget to breathe out 
again 

do you remember the night 
the sun never set 

we caught it
and held it in our hands 
and woke up tasting honey 

we danced until 
the strings in our shoes 
turned to nothing 

and then fell into 
the open arms of 
summer dreams 

you told me I had hair of gold 
and you of silver 
before you wove flowers 
made of hope into 
my heart 

and pushed me off 
every cliff we found 
over and over 

trying to show me 
that I don’t have to be 
scared of falling 

that I won’t always 
fly 

sometimes I still 
dream of mint and chamomile 
and falling out of hammocks

and laughing as  
we turn sugar sweet and

dive head first into
lakes filled with sunsets and
brief goodbyes  

we stood out on the beach
and buried our toes and our worries 
in sand 
and stood in ice cold waves until 
we forgot our names 

and we wondered about 
love and pineapples and

if the crabs that 
dug beneath our feet 
got lonely 

and now we write each other's 
names in books we will never 
see again 

and wish 
on suns that went dim 
before time took its first breath 

and hoped that 
holding the sun in our 
palms wouldn’t start to burn 
so we shoved it into our chests 
and held the pieces in our hearts

and now you’re 3,665 miles 
away 
speaking words I can’t pronounce 

and I was supposed to be 
there for you when you were falling through 
rabbit holes 
but instead i am falling too 
but in the opposite direction 

I have 5,110 
strings tied from my heart to yours 
and sometimes when you break down 
they tug

and now I don't know what to say 
because you're the one who is made 
of concrete and titanium 

the one who glues me back together
when I throw myself 
at brick walls 

and now the girl with 
constalations on her cheeks 
is making you crack 

and we don't breathe as 
easy because the sun in our chest burned away our wonder 
and now we worry about every 
peice of plastic clogging the ocean 

and bullets jumping from guns 
6,000 miles away 

and I want to go back to the day 
when you told me to stop crying
as you held my heart together 

and blood poured from my arm 
so I do 
and fall back into what sunshine looked like 
in 2009
 

gaia_lenox

VT

YWP Alumni

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