The ocean air sits like a weighted blanket over me
Our last first day she says
Can you believe it
We have been busy bees pollinating flowers
We have been planting seeds in neighbors’ yards
Feeding our cats and dogs and bunnies
The questions are
In permanent ink
Will you still be my friend next year
Or the year after that
Will you visit me at my new school
Or ever come back to this one
But no one mentions the bold letters
Because it is one of many
Unspoken rules
Where the answers
Could erase the time I jumped off the rock at the beach
Or the time I had a pizza date
But I have to trust that I have connected
With the right people
And that our time is not over
I don’t know what we will look like
Or who we will be but a kaleidoscope
Of butterflies will reassure us that we are
Not taking off
Not landing
In flight