Wish

This windworn day
and the smirk of play
I see it in the gap of her front teeth
and her unwashed unbrushed hair
I bunch it in my hands and let it fall
Her eyes come to rest on a important small spot on the ground.

Let me keep her like this
With snow cone on her lips
With sunburn on her right cheek
In the spot that I missed
With my kiss
In the palm of her hand
And all the sand
She left in the tub tonight
Lights out
A sigh in the nightlight lit darkness.

Let me put my babies in close pockets
One on each side
While I run
Through life
Let me hold them safe and steady
Let them be where my hands can feel the warm breath
Puff off of their chapped little lips
The dough of their small hands
Wrapped around my finger.

Let me live beneath her bunkbed
She is my starry sky
Let me ride in her lunchbox
She is my juicebox and my chocolate milk and the center of my oreo and my everyday
Let me keep her
Just here just like this
Let me soak her like a sponge
And hold her to my heart
So still and fast
The world stops.