Dare to fall asleep with your arm underneath your chin, or stare out the window with
An intensity that never fails to make me tense up. I don’t wonder what you dream about at
Night, only during the day. That grin blooms a wide, gummy smile as you watch me
Draw on the sidewalk with the limestone chalk rocks we dug up behind the swing set.
Engrossed and turning away, your attention instead falls to the white, fluffy flower that I
happen to be allergic to.
Littering the ground with microscopic glitter, the dandelion disperses as your spit-filled
puff of air helps it fly with an
Iridescence that almost shines brighter than you. I sneeze and imagine all the things you
dream about
On the days where your loud yawns and tired eyes tempt you to sleep. The lead ink
written haphazardly over your Optimus Prime spiral
Notebook pressed sharply into your cheeks as Mrs. Smith smacks the table so loudly you
Spring awake and only dare glance sheepishly her way. She yells at you for not paying
attention to fractions.
Daffodils, daisies, and dandelions populate the fields next to the green and blue playground that
Reeks of sweat and tears. We sit in the tall blades of yellowing grass and pick flowers with the
Effervescence of young kids carelessly blowing away our three genie wishes.
A small fly buzzes around our ears as we swat it away together. I wish you could see the
Mounds of love or like I whispered to your soul. The love or like that I wouldn’t dare
forget, even with ten years gone and no name for your face.
Idyllic in nature and in reality, your face smiles back, but I am forgetting. A fraction of
guilt plucks at my heart as I climb through the broken fence and stare at the playground
with
No recollection. Another fraction of guilt stumbles out of my shaky breath as I see white
dandelions
Growing. And I regret not writing down those memories of playground daydreams,
because they’ve finally escaped me.
Cynthia Cai is a Junior in high school from Houston, Texas. She has lived there all her life but has traveled to more countries than she can count on both her fingers and her toes. She loves the food in Houston, especially Tex-Mex, Thai, and Indian food. In her free time, you can find Cynthia reading a good high fantasy or science fiction novel, as well as sketching or painting. She has several golden and silver keys from Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. She was published last year in Hunted, an anthology of micro-fiction stories; her work is also forthcoming in a similar anthology, Trapped.
"Sidewalk Chalk Art" by ap. is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
