Sometimes I think about how strange it is that we went from knowingÂ
each other’s favorite seasons and tracing each other’s freckles
To distant friends who wish each other happy birthday
A few days late because sometimes we forget
We’ve got our own lives now, I’m out of state and you’re close to home
But I still don’t tie my shoelacesÂ
sometimes
And your cat is almost sixteen years old
Sometimes I hear your laugh when the wind rustles sequoiasÂ
and I see you, or someone who looks like you, in the grocery store back home
Your bright blue eyes, pale skin, dark hair, dirt collecting under your fingernails
from collecting bugs in the soil after primary school
And when I drive by your house on the way back to mine
I tell my friends, hey that’s where I grew up
Helping you pick on your little brother and watching basketball with your dad
Treating winter afternoons like the hottest days of summerÂ
I gave you a disc and a hundred blueish paperclips in a grocery bag for your birthdayÂ
It was some inside joke, but I’ve already forgotten what it was
More importantly, I remember eating ice cream under the sun
and whispering secrets to each other, one by one
Cheers,
B