Laying on my back I watch the ceiling,
the plastic glow-in-the-dark stars begin to fall one after another-
as I regard my world crumbling from the bottom up
and the sky feigns my view to take me back
to picturesque memories of childhood in the summertime.

A ball flying towards the power lines in
the action of a cul de sac neighborhood game
And countless bending limbs towards a mailbox driveway
To saftey.
The verdant grass on the ground encompasses a happy body;
A ball of innocent energy laughing in the perfection of a moment
That wasn't captured on camera.  

Road trips to New York in the camper
Playing music that I didn't know I would be holding close to my heart,
Living in time that went by much slower than it does now-
Forever joking to daddy are we there yet?
The sand dune hills never seemed so big
As they did when I built sand castles in the gritty beige of my grandma's land.
The bristling field never felt as fresh
As the first times I ran out in them,
Laughing in the perfection of another moment
That was not captured on camera.

Back home, when grandma and grandpa still lived with us,
I run around in tiny clothes in my tiny body
Planting flowers in pots with my grandma in the warm summer air
And hitching lawn mower rides as my grandpa mows the lawn.
Held in his firm arms I am laughing in the perfection of a moment
That was not captured on camera.

I can feel the golden light of happiness still inside me-
Bubbling and giggling as innocence hides somewhere inside my maturity.
I watch the ceiling above me fall back into place
Gaze at the stars flowing back into their given position
As if they'd never moved at all,
I lay here as my mind reaches back to when it wasn't hard to be infinitely happy,
To moments of innocence that bring me back
To safety
While I laugh in the imperfection of a moment
That is me now.