Swingsets

One

A summer birthday party

Thinking sweet sixteen seemed so old

Pilgrimaging to to see the sunrise

Trying to swing high

Still worrying

What if I’m too fat for this and I break the chains

But this is too beautiful to think like this

I finally feel for the first time

Like home is something tangible

Two

Wet grass seeping into sneakers

Flying with swaying legs

Between the two girls

I’d come to call my two best friends

I laugh along to things I don’t quite understand

But the feeling of floating

Between two beloveds

It was such inexplicable sweetness

Three

Same setting as the first

Trying to convince

A friend whose soul was drifting out of his place in my heart

I told him not to worry

That things would work out somehow

And he scoffed saying I couldn’t talk

Because unlike him, I was successful

Successful because I’m happy

And I sadistically smiled since he was right

Four

Talking about an effervescent future

With such naive optimism

With a brand new beloved

As he pushed me on the massive swing

And jumped on

Cuddling beside me

As we looked on

In bittersweet awe

As the sun set