We were Girls Together,
slipping into sidewalk cracks,
then in the thick drip of leaves
and unlit fireflies. Everything
slouched heavy with heat.
I held ice to your neck,
and you to mine. Dribbled
the last bits onto parted lips.
We took our shoes off at midnight
and walked barefoot to the gas station
through grass grown hip high. Bought
root beer and cigarettes. Swapped dreams
and hoped for the ground to carry us
forward into them. Sung, harmonized,
on the way home like two afterthoughts
wandering the moonlight.
Heather Neidlinger is a current 3rd year poetry MFA candidate at Western Kentucky University and recently placed in the Intro Journal Writing Contest sponsored by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). The poem that placed will be published in Quarterly West sometime late this year/early next year. Heather also has a forthcoming publication in October with Red Flag Poetry.