End Note

Never Forget How to Live Young

by IMONYLOWD illustration by KRISTEN SOLECKI

No matter how many times flesh helps us remember how old our age is, we must never forget how to live young

How to live as wild as unwrapped hair in the middle of sleep As wild as two mountains trying to see which one’s really the hardest As wild as a jar of excitement with no lid to cover its mouth from shouting so hard that a lung of joy jumps from its throat and they both sing a song of happiness

We must never forget how to live careless, careless not as in any kind of way but as in worriless, as in not letting cares hold you back from believing in the hands that they were made to be casted in

We must never forget how to live free

As free as a mind that thinks with no limits, as free as an offered blessing with no ultimatum, as free as the will God gave us, as free as the trees that dance when the wind whistles, as free as salvation

We must never forget how to be dreamers, how to run our imaginations to the place of what seems impossible, how to stretch the hands of our goals so high that they’re about to peel back a piece of the sky’s body so we can see all the heaven behind it that we can have here on earth if we would just erase the sky’s the limit off of the board of our mottos

We must never forget how to try over and over again, like a baby whose toes are trying to become better artists as walking by continuing to attempt to paint a straight line from one side of the living room to the other

We must never forget about the smile sitting behind the curtains of our lips We must never forget how to be happy, how to rest How to praise dance in the storm