I.
that year went by so fast, didn’t it? —
I made so many mistakes and they will
seem unforgivable for a while
however, it still seemed so right,
so wonderful
just like the frozen blueberry lemonades
sweating in our clutched hands
needing coolness in the heat
of the sun so harsh and yet so welcome
II.
sitting on that hillside on a waning June afternoon,
we remembered the blizzard,
our entire bottom halves buried in a snow bank,
drinking home-made snow cones
with raspberry lemonade
wind and snow and ice hitting our faces
while we smiled and drank our cones
now the sun is hitting our faces instead
and we have straws this time
III.
so much changed between raspberry and blueberry lemonades.
so much fear and stress and
love and defeat and purpose
and feeling and feeling and feeling
and raspberry and blueberry have quite different tastes -
raspberries are sweet, while blueberries are more tart
I guess.
I wonder if that will matter to this story in the future,
and I wonder if it matters now.
IV.
in that moment,
on that hillside in the sun
and feeling the freedom of a year coming to a close
we were also wondering —
where do butterflies sleep?