Wordsworth Magazine Spring 2022

[and we were willows] S e n e c a willow leaves reach out, bestowing damp sunset kisses across your forehead. i rest in the crook of your arm, listening to your quiet heartbeat steady like the branches we climbed back when the world seemed much too large. chipped nail polish fingers grasping wood as we climbed until it was just us, and the sky. deep belly laughs, we perched, like birds, letting the sunrise caress our cheeks. it was there, when you whispered into the wind your words misty and unsteady but never unsure, you declared that you were in love with 37