for my friends

love and maps

i can count the sparse scattered freckles
on my arms like stars, or like dots on a map,
colored pushpins over cities we can connect
with a pencil line or twine. we loop around each
opaquely and solidly placed pin amidst paper earth tones,
orange, blue, yellow, green, red just like
our rough chapped palms grasping at strings,
plus two big cans and some small hearts
who whisper hello, goodbye.

we were strewn about like birdseed
countries, continents wide; seagulls snatched us up
and flew us away over bodies of water,
though none as vast as our ocean eyes, airplane skies;
just catch the wind and we'll sail the sunrise.
but the world turns my head and time zones make it spin
so maybe i'll just write to you instead:
pen scratching, thumbs tapping, keys clacking.
we can build this world on words, our alphabet maps
out this place where all the you’s and me’s still spell out us,
lettered across the clouds, the land, the sea.

don’t let go of the string; i won’t let go of your hands.