reeseriversandstone

We smell like backpacks 
and old smoke and earth.
Dirt-cheap perfume that
grips you like Chanel anyway.

We don't have to worry about "pretty." 
Our pretty is in our 

I know Despair like an old friend who was meant to stay a memory.
A perfectly picked-out grass-stained letting go--

Some fitting loss that spells forward motion
Kinetic energy of my youth still bouncing, rubber

golden brain lit with pale sunlight 
since the day you were born

mind finally in the limelight for running on fumes
the grandmother caretaker gardener bows out

eyes glimmer in the sterile lamplight

I'm putting this one up here for myself to hang onto; that being said, it's a message I'd like to extend to any 2021 grads! :)

Fire boy 
Boy with the wind pulling waves from your curls

Wild by nature, controversial by choice
Weblike anger ebbs into smarting hurt

But I promise I’ll learn

I don’t think you mean to mock me

I was a model employee at the mirage factory.

Moved through the bland-faced clothes racks with swagger,
The cumulative bite of two dozen hangers on my arm;
Noticing everything but speaking vapors.