She says she used to inhale summer

Used to trap heat waves in her eyes

(the way they used to shift between colors)

Used to adorn her wrists with strawberry leaves 

(i always wondered why not strawberry seeds)

Used to paint her nails with firefly bulbs

(how she kept them calm for long enough, i’ll never know)

Sometime between last winter and now I’ve realized

(I too am alive)

How her eyes reflect the best parts of me

(she never wanted to keep them)

How she prayed I’d never grow

(god forbid she water the seeds)

How she always put on the parts of me that she thought were beautiful

(That she thought were convenient)

That she caught

I am winter now 

Turned ice cube now 

And I will not melt to replenish her again