We’ve been sprawled on the old wood bridge for hours.
Our young palms are splintered now by twisted boards and the tops
of our feet sting,
red
from the biting chill whipping our bare skin.
I’m more scared than you are.
You’re more scared than anything.
Icy gray clouds shift endlessly above our sweet warm breaths:
mine wasted on childish trivialities
and yours blessed with provocative profundities.
We wade in half-frozen water in the woods by where we are grow-
ing up.
This is the place I will stagnate
and it is almost winter
and our world is still big.