Over My Head

1.  All the kids at the party were busy talking New York and I hadn't learned that language yet, so I took to the sidewalk where the trees were blowing up pink and white and tipped my head up to overhear a bit of the words I understood, and I walked watching the branches move and converge until I veered off the sidewalk into a parked car, knees bruised on the bumper, bit tongue but still worth it.

2.  We drove up to the lake that night and I swear there were shooting stars all around the place but I'm pretty sure it was just the tip of your cigarette reflecting off the windshield each time you took a drag, and I kept making wishes for each one I saw and at least two of them came true but not with you.  You moved to California, and that's the last I heard of you.

3.  It was the 4th of July and I was driving over the passes alone.  I'd just left you, and I was going home at my own speed.  No one was expecting me, so when I saw the sun setting, I turned at the first town I came to and followed the parade of cars and parked.  And I sat on the hood of my little hatchback watching the fire bloom above me, and I was nowhere and with no one and it was just fine.

4.  "Get up."  "What?"  "Get up."  "Why?"  "Just come and see."  I take her hand and she leads me outside, and the sky is filled with lines streaking down, white strings on fire burning themselves to the end of their rope and I find the same sky 20 years later in the grass while my daughter sleeps inside and something in me is just waking up.