First Love

You were the Eden of my youth. All
sand and sun, cerulean eyes. A paradise
with limbs. Together we went climbing
on the edge of rocks (on the edge of any
thing).

Do you remember my sister’s laugh? The
Chevy’s smell? The way we cried when they
pulled his body from the waves?

Sometimes I imagine what it’d be like to
show you I’m alive. The thrill of it. The sharp
inhale. The nerve exposed. The bone.