love song for those that came before you

Kendra

From between the barbed wire fences of
platinum plastic barbie hair
tattered glittered fairy wands
pink and blue
red and blue
next door neighbors
my mom knew your mom
(got thrown through a window)


Zoya

This was before things got weird.
Or maybe they already were,
but this was when that sugar high kool aid asphalt energy
propelled us down melting summer streets
into mischief or magic.
When we played pick your favorite mythological creature and
you were my first friend in urbana
your name, my name
all we wanted to do was become artists or unicorns.
I grew up too fast
and you just kept getting
more and more beautiful.

Jenn

There are moments whose strength
still sings in me now.

Her elegant fingers
the right angle of her elbow
bisecting
the cast light of street lamps

her exhale in the night air.

I wanted to run my tongue
across her inguinal ligament
wrap my hands around the slightness of her waist.

But she kept shrinking into
the background of other boys
disappearing into the liquor
waiting for her parents to destroy her.

We both looked for our light in others' eyes.

We both learned how to carry our stories
inside our skeletons.

But she is mine
and hers

were much older.