Nine Months of Spring

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Beneath rusted swings and burnt yellow slides

That curved between laughter and orange horizons

Laid her hand in his sweaty palm

She leaned her head on his undeveloped chest

Magnolias before they bloom,

Cotton, chaste

Red lava engulfed his cheeks

 

She used to play dress up

Sit on cement steps and braid my hair

Streaming down my back

Curling at my waist

Stopping

 

They sat still until adolescence led them to steel lockers

And concrete pavements

Laced with gossip and used lighters,

Cigarette butts and discarded Black and Milds

Her chest grew larger, tilting her lips to his collarbone

It lingered there

Tingling through her spine

Down her back

 

Climbing her fingers until they hung around his neck

Tracing years of playground hugs

Her lips touched his skin softly

Inhaling

Eradicating one clothing article at a time

 

Her stomach fell into spring

Blooming with stretched skin,

Protruding belly button

Porcelain dolls like ghosts hung silently in closed closets

They would be used again

But never by her

 

The last of her childhood

Nested in lemonade stands and

Faded chalk that danced to the squares of

Hopscotch

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