By Misti Velvet Rainwater
Date: 16 March 2000

First & Shining

             as children
             we were more
             than close
       like Catherine & Heathcliff
             we barred the rest
            of the world from
           the one we created
        ...how normal is it, I
              wonder
           for a four year old girl
           and a five year old boy
           to walk through the park
               holding hands
         and to share the same sense of humor
         and to push others aside
         to spend time alone with
              each other
          making all the adults marvel
          and muse over the strange intensity
              of the bond?
       when people ask me how old I was
             when I first fell
                 in love
         I lie and tell them I was seventeen
           because most people don't believe
               you can fall in love
                 when you still have
                   your baby teeth
         but my heart sings a different song
            and I only hum it
                 to myself
                    when I think of you
               remembering our purity & innocence
                    and all that was lost
           ...no more drive-in movies
              no more believin' that you can plant a bean
              in the backyard and a beanstalk will grow
              no more walks in the park
              and swingin' to the sky
              no more lookin' into a pair of brown eyes
              and somehow seein' myself
              even though my own eyes
              are an intense shade
                  of blue
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