I remember us,
meeting on that giant hill in the warm summer heat
Our last free one, not defined
by framing school years
Not worried by the thoughts that plague us now
We met, ridding a tricycle and a red, red wagon

Instantly we were best friends
We’d do everything together,
Remember Halloween, those dark nights
and that house at the end of the road
with all those older kids, jumping
out of trees and wearing masks.
You gave one a black eye, remember
I have no idea how but you did,
in the dark, half-blind, you did

Remember how I’d stay over for days,
and you’d beg me to stay more, with
a Childs whine and shining eyes,
and I’d remain there, happily,
We’d go out and adventure in the summer sun
Remember how I’d stay ghost pale but you,
you’d get more freckles than stars in the Milky Way
My mom would plaster us with sunscreen, and
you’d be as white as me, for just a bit
After endless complaints about the cold, slimy muck we’d escape
and startle yellow-jackets, white noses shining
and catch lightning- bugs
(There not fireflies, no matter how much you insist they are)
the dying sunset captured forever in blinking glass lanterns,
the glow preserved in our eyes.

We’d race bikes across our kingdom,
Faster than the wind and further than the moon, and
We’d return, hoisting swords high, faces dirty and smiles bright
laughing like demons, plundered gold heavy in our pockets.
Our time was spent with snapdragons at our heels, and
dirt soft at our feet

And, remember
you broke your arm, in late august
when the world was rose-dark and hot-but-also-cold.
You were soaring
Flying as high as you should be, but falling that steep length.
Hitting the ground with a gut-wrenching crack and a hollow thud
You were still for a moment, a shattered angel
with wings, cracked and mangled around you,
The dirt wasn’t soft anymore.
Your arm was weird, misshapen, broken and
you couldn’t stop crying, I couldn’t make you stop.
I’ve never been as scared as that in my life

Remember how after that we forgot, and then how
We remembered again
How you got mettle in your mouth and
it was absolutely the coolest thing ever,
and anyone who said it was lame was lying.
We’d lie on you roof looking at the bright
lanterns hanging in the sky,
flashing in and out of existence
we’d talk about anything and everything
then fall asleep under the blinking lights
Time passed and you started hanging out with other people
I started hanging out with pat and will
We were in different classes and life went on
But that didn’t change anything,
we were still best friends forever
Racing across our kingdom in the dying summer heat
Until ever ended.

I remember a big white truck,
but that explanation doesn’t really do it justice.
I knew what it meant when it pulled up
But I didn’t understand fully
I didn’t know that it would pull up in front of my
HOME so soon
That the purple wall would be painted over
That all our memories would be packed up
That my blue and yellow bedroom wouldn’t be mine anymore
That I’d have to leave.
I’ve never been as sad as that in my life
I was leaving and there were tears
I wouldn’t ever have marshmallows and chocolate
in that weird way you’d eat them
The lightning-bugs would have no one to catch them and
marvel in their glow.
And our soccer games wouldn’t happen,
The orange-peal smiles at half time were
Over
I was gone

Now
I think I’ve changed.
A lot.
I don’t really know if you’d recognize me anymore
But I do miss you and I think
even now you’re my best friend, forever

But,
I’ve caught fireflies with other people
on warm summer nights.
The stars shining brighter than we’ve ever seen them
(I slept outside that night. Watched the planets rotate and orbit,
wondered if you were looking)
I got my first bee sting.
In a thundering July, right on the tip of my nose,
It hurt and I cried, but after I was less scared of bee stings

In a winter-that-was-to-hot-to-be-winter
my arm broke
I got hit with a soccer ball,
It didn’t hurt at first, just wouldn’t move
I stood in the center of the field, frozen
Confused as to why my arm was
Weird, misshapen, bent,
after a minute the world moved
The bone was out of place, and
it hurt so much, I cried

I road bikes past the milky way and back
Racing against the wind,
Instead of you,
Pinpricks of blinking lights my mile markers
I’ve seen tricycles and red, red wagons
Meeting on tops of hills
Kids running together on Halloween
Standing up against monsters twice their size
And handing out black eyes and split lips
Kids white with sunscreen armor,
laughing like demons and slaying dragons
No idea of the magic they’re living in,
How life can make it bittersweet
and even though oranges don’t taste as satisfying
I still eat them,
Thinking of sugary duck-billed smiles.

Eight summers have come and gone
We’ve changed and I don’t recognize you anymore
We’re out of place and broken,
Frozen, standing in shock and falling to the floor
crying about what we never got to do
and the bittersweet things we cant gat back

And we’ve never been more scared of the future in our lives

But remember, we might never meet again,
On a giant hill
In the warm summer heat
But you’re still my best friend
Until ever ends.