Merry go-rounds
Twirl around the sky
Shut down ice-cream posts and
Repressed flower petals
Crisscrossed hands and
Popsicle sticks
Loitering the salt-stained pavement
Glints of late-night squares in
Skyscrapers which brush the clouds
The crunch of diseased leaves and the
Distant honks and whistles
In chaotic, zig-zag traffic
Snow falls silently
Its fingertips landing on
Windbreakers and cotton mittens
Of children
With red cheeks and
Exasperated smiles
Chasing after frozen-pond ducks
With tongues extended and catch
Soft white water
Winter dampens the sidewalk cracks
And chills the abandoned earmuffs
But winter will not
And can not
Dampen or
Freeze or
Abandon the spirits

A trace of baked apples
and coastlines
Meredith’s most cherished possession
A bicycle
Purple and patterned
She grips high handlebars with high hopes
When the sun leaves a lasting impression
in the water
She pedals fast towards chimneys
flooding with smoke
Toward spongy grass and
midnight porch swings
Her only fear is drowning-
not in water
In innocence, in indifference
Dying without a purpose,
dying without a name
The palms whistle her name
as the sun sets and
the moon howls
She lets the shower soak her skin
Then sits at the corner of her bed
nocturnally
She dreams of waterfalls taller than God and
waves wider than wind
She sells italian ice
in a ball cap with
her toes curled in the sand
She’ll never leave