2006

We make plans to do the impossible

Sitting on our front porches 

As the summer crickets’ songs surround us 

We slowly sip sweet tea and lemonade

Talking about “tomorrow” and “One day”

‘Cause were unbreakable 

Barely 18 

With hair colored ungodly colors 

Piercings and tattoos 

(that our grandmothers cringe at )

And we stay up all night 

And sleep our days away 

And we’ve slowly come to terms 

With the fact that nothing is static 

Nothing is innately stable 

We know 

That in the blink of an eye 

Our lives can; will

Be completely changed 

So we breathe in deep 

Our last gasps of our childhood 

And reminisce together 

About “yesterday” and “back then” 

And in the deepest, secret parts of us 

We wish we could go back to peanut butter and jelly 

Sidewalk chalk, playing in the sprinkler, and drip drying

In comfort of the sun

We remember the bittersweet process 

Of training our 

Tree-climbing, creature-saving hands 

To be civilized 

Writing words we could not yet read 

Carrying our Ninja Turtles and My Little Pony lunchboxes

packed by our mommies

And having our shoes tied tightly with double knots;

Preparation for when we escaped the classrooms 

And we can still taste the sweetness 

The Kool-Aid and popsicles 

On our lips 

And we still, secretly love 

“Full house” and “nickelodeon”

And all of the other under-rated 

Things that make up 

the backgrounds of our childhood 

The 90s

And we can look back now and laugh

at the hormonal-balls-of-emotions 

that we were at 13

Passing notes about what “he said, she said” 

and falling in and out of something like love 

weekly

As we shifted uncontrollably 

in our to0-big, flawed, blemished exterior 

We struggled to find our place 

Not sure we’d ever make it through 

as we tried to stay placid 

To be cool, to “fit in” 

Attempting to reach the highly overrated 

superficiality that was, and is popularity 

And we remember the nervous, excited feeling 

Of being slammed, head first, into 

The harsh, fabulous disaster, that is high school;

A place that seemed far too big 

When we felt far too small 

And we may have looked fragile, 

But we are stronger than we gave ourselves credit for 

And we held our books, instead of hands, 

As we walked 

Together 

Trying to figure out who we really were 

Who we really are 

Who we really wanted to be 

And we smile, still, at the excitement of reaching 

That covetous age of freedom, 16, 

When we get the keys into the ignition

Of the family’s car 

And learn how to fly 

Always coming back down; landing 

By our set curfews 

That we saw as punishment, but our parents knew its safety 

And sailing back through the years, nostalgia as our guide

It’s all bittersweet 

Knowing we will never be 5, 13, 16, again 

But also knowing we are living here, now 

And some of us will look back 

At highschool 

In years to come 

At who we “used to be” 

And laugh 

Some of us may cry 

And now we embrace our last moment 

In our semi-stable surroundings 

And sink our lips into eachother 

Before we say goodby, 

Maybe forever 

Breathing in deep the crisp morning air 

And drinking in every drop of sunshine and stars 

That weve come to take for granted all these years 

And we dance despite the rain 

While our legs are still young 

And we roll our car windows down 

And turn our music up n

And sing just a little too loud 

And laugh just a little too hard 

With our photographs and yearbooks 

And treasured memories 

Packed tightly in our backseats 

Knowing that out “tomorrow”

is today 

and “one day” 

is now 

And we can do absolutely anything 

’cause we are unbreakable.

–Cara Bohon