i.
In that moment
we were lost boys,
half naked,
fallen out of our prams,
whisked away
into a world
where day never met night
and we walked in our shadows
over lakes of mermaids,
where you played father
I played mother
and we sang
until Tink begged us to stop.

ii.
You told me
we could stay forever,
forget what books told us,
swallow our dust,
live behind the moon

but Wendy loved to read
to the boys
and when her soft lips
ended that story,
you remembered the way
your mother finished stories
while tucking you in bed,
needed home,
and left.

iii.
Occasionally,
I sit at night
with the moon
and think about our never
land

and how I am a
ticking clock
in the midst of
incompetent souls.