excerpts from Little Death
1
It is the summer after school’s end and we are outside by the river on the night of the flying ants. It is the hottest day on record. The last time anyone remembers being this warm we weren’t in love or even born yet. On the weather there was a huge sun over where we live. There are one million flying ants. There are one million flying ants and you are walking me home by the river through one million flying ants flying in and out of the folds of our loose summer clothes. We wish it wasn’t so hot. It is thirty degrees at 6pm by the river on the hottest night of the flying ants on record. My skin is red and damp and yours is.
The sun hits the river in a way that makes it seem alive. I put my head on your shoulder and you put your arm around mine. I swat one million flying ants from in front of our faces and I turn towards you and I kiss you. I am alive like the river in the sun at 6pm.
2
I dream of you inside a huge lake with me. The water is clear and we can see our feet together dancing on the stones at the bottom of the lake. We are holding hands inside the huge lake together and the sun is also huge. The sun is also huge and it fills every part of the sky above us. The clear water’s ripples catch the light in a way that makes them seem alive. And we are alive like the ripples in the sun and I kiss you inside a huge lake in my dream in a way that I have never kissed you on the outside of my dreams.