Summer Remains, Poem, Amma Aning

Summer Remains

I remember the water, don’t you? all I can remember is the water, crystalline, I’d place my fingers along the cold edge of the tub I used to pretend we were rich so much I convinced myself it was true coming home was a punch to the stomach and my whole life was a jar filled to the brim with spite if there was ever anything for me to learn it’s passed me by now every day stings a wrong word makes my eyes swell with tears i used to have a whole life planned but now all I can do is pretend I’m back there head against the wall, speckled sunlight coming through the windows behind my eyelids I am twelve again, still stuck inside you, wriggling, molting out of your shell every summer i am left waiting for what i cannot have

Amma Aning