upon reflection

i love girls.

i loved girls before i understood what love was.

i channeled that love into art, spending my earliest days drawing them with abandon.

girls with long hair and short hair

girls in dresses and shorts

girls who secretly married each other and ran away together when their boyfriends weren’t there

to me, loving girls was

like breathing air

like drinking water

like running through an endless field for

miles

and miles

and miles

breathless and light and free

my friends and i sat in my driveway, tracing cracks in the sun-warmed asphalt with pastel chalk

i’d admit that i didn’t understand what the deal was with boys anyway.

i just like girls.

the humid summer air tenderly held those words

peace blossomed between my constricting ribs

they nodded sagely and laid back next to me

murmurs of agreement and comfort rising to join mine amidst the waning beams of the sun.