Ju-lie

dear july

i miss when you used to touch me. grow a custom-made bed and coax me to lie beside you. warm all over, you blowing on my neck, snickering as i shivered. wasting time in your heat.

do you remember the fort? back in the marsh, on the hill over looking the stream? the mosquitoes used to snap at my ankles before you'd chase them away, barking like a rabid dog. i thought we would make something there.

you had grande sized expectations for me. taught me to dance under the pine trees. knotted my hair with reminders; one, two, three. skin charred to exhaustion, forever awaiting a storm.

my coffee is black and small in stature. the same every time. storms have come washing your calamity away. sidewalks drying in hope.