Eternal Summer - Scribbles

Growing Up

Remember when you and I
took the little ones down for a run
to let them play in the park
on a beautiful summer evening?

They ran as fast as their little legs could
tumbling in piles of soft red leaves;
I sat beside you on flower-strewn grass
and we watched them play, in silence.

They crashed into each other over and again
and rolled down hills like pebbles in the wind
tackling each other, kicking up the dust,
screaming in ecstasy like baby squirrels.

Sometime not so long ago
we must have run and played like that,
hand in hand, climbing over each other,
like little animals in a bed of summer flowers.

My ankles must have entwined themselves in yours,
your fingers must have torn at my hair;
we must have pressed our bodies close together
and rolled down the hill without a worry in the world.

Now we only talk in soft, low voices
and then we always blush and avert our eyes;
sometimes you smile at me so warmly-
but our hands never touch anymore.

As we sit side by side in this little haven
and a tactful breeze blows away our words,
do you remember what we used to be?
Do you remember what happened to us?

I'm not quite sure I do.

Unexpectedly,
the restless wind seems to chime, "Hurry, hurry",
and it dances, flushed roseate with novelty,
carrying a strange golden magic, some tender warmth
through the ever-decreasing gap between our shoulders...

Your little sister runs towards us, breaking the spell,
arm-in-arm with my brother, both rubbed red-brown with play;
and suddenly I want their toothless smiles
to stay etched on the little faces,
forever.

I want them to never grow up...