A BFF's Lament

We are tragically willing

to define “true love”
as youth-flavored kisses
and goosebumps on our flesh  
or the hollow knock of loneliness
On our xylophone ribs

when we are not sighing and shining,

Pining for someone with beauty and charm.
But the world is so
filled with love
we are never taught to treasure,
Like the shoulders we cry on

Or the ways we whisper our secrets

Into honey-sweet ears

Catching june bugs and fireflies

Swatting mosquitos off our legs

And drinking raspberry lemonade til the end of August

With the people we pinky-swear

Our hearts and our plans to.

We fling ourselves into the arms of our lovers--
Icarus hearts
flying too close to a silver-song sun--

Our wings dissolve and

the people who have given us the Earth

Open their arms to greet us.

Our friends

Open their Daedalus hearts and

Despite the sun melting our wax and feather souls

They greet us and deliver us from the sea foam

Dry us off

And help us survive.
You see, I used to be the lead singer

of the Lonely Hearts Club Band

because all I wanted was to
Make out with the groupies.

Candle wax drips

Onto rose petals and silverware and cloth napkins

We grab our lovers’ hands and
Hide inside their arms and we

Make cages in their mouths and

Twist our tongues into poems and

Forget that the only reasons we are alive

Are the 3am Cheetos and

Laughing until our bodies ache:

We live for playing videogames on dirty couches

We live for conversations about the future and

Crying about our stupid boyfriends,

Sidewalk chalk dust on our fingers and

Locking arms as we dance through the grass.
We leap to life for our friends and their kindness,

Their endless loyalty and their courage

Their curly hair and the way they understand

Every lilt in our voices and every smirk in our speech.

Did Father McKenzie shovel dirt over Eleanor

Because she died of loneliness?

Maybe.

All I know certainly is

All the lonely people

Come from the darkest corners of the earth

Where each act of loyalty and honesty

Are crushed like velvet into oblivion

And disappear into the bellies of beasts

Who swallow kindness and never regurgitate it.
I am alive for every person

Who had more to say in my yearbooks than
“Have a good summer”

And every person who was by my side

Who made sure I did.