i saw the most wonderful thing today

addressed to everyone i call my friend

and no, it wasn't the softness of your new haircut that you let me whisper against with my fingertips, beautiful // or the bright purple hand cream with my name scrawled in your neatest handwriting messier than the flour in our hair last time we baked **** wobbly welcomes waiting in my locker // or the lavender pop sugar cookie pop popcorn that you fumbled for in the microwave not meaning for it to pop burn pop pop pop get it get it out laughing not meaning for an accidental perfume // it wasn’t the mischievous twinkle in your eye nor the quirk in your quick-to-be smile darting away and away from us all triumphant in the way only people with stars in their eyes can be // or your hair all tied up in a scrunchie i can’t remember which one you have too many and for that i’ll call you flowers, tie-dyed flowers, dancing across the room on a sea of carelessness and beautiful brown hair // or the little smirk dimpling your cheek red rough and raw with the wrong side of winter but the way you grin cheshire-cat style when i hand you the candy cane makes us all think christmas is here // and no, it wasn’t the way your shoulder brushed mine the other day in the stairwell both of us breathing hard for some reason but not the reason that you asked if i was okay voice lifting like a question unanswered as the stairs fell away beneath us // it was not the laughter that precedes your every light step lifting the burden of the world hair curling like a comma always the first to smile and the last to finish laughing, your amusement the liveliest of punctuation // it couldn’t’ve been how your head turned faster than the rocketry we like to wonder about when my pencil said i have a secret on the ripped piece of homework never finished that serves as our conversation, ideas only scratches on the surface of the world // and i don’t think it was your nails tapping on the table t-t-t-ttt-t-t-t metronome against the rhythm of your thoughts broken only when you pause to drink from your holiday-ed paper cup, hot chocolate fixing it all if only for a moment // and it wasn’t – oh, it was! i saw // something wonderful today and it was a little girl bows in her hair and glitter in her smile sitting in her grandfather’s lap rocking to and to and fro with the halting motion of the bus // rubbing her eyes with her little clenched hand to and to and fro rubbing hard then harder as if she could rub all the worldly awfulness away // and it reminded me of something else // wonderful and it was this picture i have here on my wall, all of us caught not-posing which makes for the greatest picture, eyes closed and mouths open in frozen grins realization lifting our gazes we must have thought we’re not ready but we were, joy the last thing of ours caught in time before summer caught in the moment when we all fell to the ground laughing so hard that all the worldly awfulness // simply disappeared //