Coco

There's a rope swing

all the way back in the woods.

I forgot it was there.

I took you there,

do you remember?

Yesterday we read quotes my mother kept from when my sister and I were little.

We didn't know the guy 

in the truck 

who's that guy? 

my sister asked, 

and I wondered if city people 

expected to know everyone 

they saw around town. 

Ice caps are melting,

According to the news,

Which I’ve stopped reading,

Because I don’t want to hear about the

Melting ice

Underneath the polar bears feet,

Not when I see enough

What does it take to see the dandelions blooming in the spring, yellow manes bobbing in the wind?

What does it take to see the sun slanting through the windows, to hear the tree frog's chorus in the night?

I love you.

I know that’s just me

And you

And there are hundreds

Of millions

Of haters

Of hated.

But I love you.

But you’re my best friend.

I love you for phone calls

the air tastes like honey and promise 

sticky with the scent of blooming jasmine 

and freshly cut grass that crunches beneath bare feet 

the sky drips blue 

stretching wider every afternoon