Shards are scattered
The ticking hourglass has run out of sand
It was bound to happen
And this time there’s no turning the clock back again
The crack was eventually going to shatter the mirror
Leaving behind pieces
That make up something unclear
A broken reflection
Of what used to be so whole
Maybe it can be put back together
Maybe
But I just don’t know

No.

The word
                 fell
                        like a boulder.

And shattered
                         the shining
                    glass.

Take my hand, friend
just for a sec-
let's leave this ****** land of
SATs, PSATs, APs,
and college admission essays and guidance counselors
and homework and pop quizzes and exams and whatever else-

                                          behind.

Let's be two again.

Let's make Pringle-chip-duck faces
and grin with orange peel smiles-
I'll paint my nails yellow and we'll read Dr. Seuss with British accents
in the dimming light of the old
falling-down fort of pillows and blankets (that's almost too small for us)

Let's pretend
              Let's pretend
                            Let's pretend

That we've never seen the glowing screen of
televisions, computers, IPods,
that we haven't spent weeks wearing down our thumbs on text messages.
              Let's forget fights over boys that weren't even all that hot.

Let's sit in my yard and eat raw cookie dough behind my momma's back
And make too-sweet fresh lemonade, and blow dandelions
(into other neighbor's yards, of course)
Spray garden hoses at each other
and laugh and scream and giggle and make mud-pies.
Let's make twenty different secret handshakes,
Eat wild raspberries and hide sticky fingers
And pinky promise- again and again- BFFs forever.

Let's lose ourselves in the bliss of childhood
just one more time- please.

                            Just in case Peter Pan decides to visit.

I can’t find the words
For anything.
They don’t just flow out of my mouth,
All rhythmic and smooth like everyone else.
They come out all choppy,
Unintelligible,
Incomprehensible.
So that’s why I sealed my lips.
I closed my mouth and hid my voice.
Not one word will slip
Out.
Speechless.