the steps shift a new breath settles me its soft rhythm speaks of a rich new life awaiting when once was lock stepped steep sided cloying you once knew a child she spoke of simple pleasures a sugar cube or a pinch of a lemon rind its sour scraping the smile off her face but inside a laughter boiled up from her belly she was lost in the delight the absurdity of sucking from the sourest citrus fruit when she could see the ripe melon its hard and bland rind belying the (migraine inducing) sickening ripe and juicy (secret) covered by its cloying overpowering scent. the ceiling was tacky from the swirling tool tracking lines. it was not the only permanent mark left that day. did you taste the fruit? putrid with its loss of innocence the smiles upon the summer faces frozen in a laughter not their own did they not know? were they unaware? seasonal fruit kept secrets.
I was tearing up reading this.