after Mary Szybist
It’s so green up here.
The branches are holding me
like great big hands.
It’s almost comfortable enough to sleep.
Last night, you were in my dream.
You were at school in a yellow ball gown
and you had wings. Then you flew all the way to Spain.
Why was I so dressed up? I wish
I could fly to Spain! Maybe they have trees
we could sleep in. Look down there,
that’s the path we walked to get here.
It looks so far away from all the way up here!
Don’t you think that cloud looks like a body?
But my hips don’t look like that.
Let’s pretend. I’m a famous moviestar.
And I want to be the president.
Okay, you’re the first lady president
and you have your own plane.
I’d rather have wings.
Oh yeah, we have big wings that fly us
all the way to Spain.
What kind of trees do they have there?
Beautiful ones with flowers and oranges
and leaves so big you can sit on them.
Like the ones we saw in that movie.
Except we haven’t been shrunk
and it’s me and you, in real life.
Do you believe in magic?
I believe in mermaids. And God,
but only because my grandmother
tells me to. I’m climbing up higher.
Are we still going to Spain?
Come up here. You can see everything,
all the way to the ocean. I wish
I had a photographic memory. I do too.
I’d remember every single thing I saw.
Take a memory of me now. Okay, smile.
Click! I can’t show it to you, but you can imagine.
Way up here, you look like you’re flying.
Everything around you is green
and leafy and fluttering like so many birds.