To all the friends I wish I had loved sooner

I wish I had known you when we were younger

With our sun-kissed cheeks and lopsided grins

When we were filled with joy and mindless wonder

At summer church camp singing off-tune hymns

Peanut butter and jellies on the beach

Running barefoot through those white sandy dunes

Climbing trees, it would be your hand which I’d reach

Among the leaves on those sunny afternoons

Sticky popsicle melt trailing down our wrists

While we caught fireflies in the late evenings

And I truly wish all of that exists

Not merely as my sentimental feelings

Because I did not know you way back then

So I settle for loving you now, my friend