walk skip jump run

sore throAT ugly goat walking down the lane

pretty ribbons pretty lace on his collar like his name

forget me not and simply be a place a louse a dirty floor where water spilled and coffee stained and children ran and rolled for pleasure.

the colors were unreal and the story was sugar coated and plenty of little girls gazed in amazement at the prize they all desired but only one can ever have and what kind of prize is imprisonment and loss? what is happily ever after? what is looking forward never back? what is not just knowing you've arrived in each moment intact?

i buckled up my shoes and left out onto the street frost bitten and glaring and dodging cars and over under into up around and through and the russsshhhhhh of steam and steady wait of up up and then

like blooming smoke escaping the stack and spreading out to get in all our lungs and clog our breathing or moving or thinking or feeling. trees are more forgiving. here you have to walk just right or you might crash and bruise your elbow

or

your knee.

and still that voice is tied in knots of confused second chances that dont exist unicorns of thought bounding through the open valley towards the river that descends from the steep slopes of that one mountain that we climbed and rested on and ate blueberries from in the sun. so high. we saw the fire.

we imagined the destruction.

we tried to connect the dots and predict the future.

written in the sand.

you know how to know me. you know how to see me. i know how to need you and where are you and why can't you?

precious stones and feathers dropped so i can fly.

but before i leave i have to find out what i did that made you so disappointed. so angry. so shy.