My fingers press to my stomach
Under four layers of clothing
The core of me is warm and giving
My hands are freezing
I walk like that for a few minutes
Hugging myself through the juxtaposition
Of heat and cold across the skin of my belly
It’s morning, a cold spring, and our Georgian forest
is quiet but for our tennis shoes kicking up brush across the trail
We wind around the edge of the river
And climb up on the first large rocks we see
Just because, because we can
There’s a biting wind that brushes our ears
But by noon the bite has died, the sun comes out
And we say over and over
This feels good, this feels good
We stop to sit side by side
On a bench swing by the water
As we rock in tandem
We laugh ourselves silly
At how our feet dip up and down in sync
Following each other’s rhythms without words
Skeletons, Muscles, Legs
And all the allegories we can find
To define our friendship
The three of us
The three of us stop on a low wooden bridge
One, two, three, jump and we jump
The three of us eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
And talk about camping with our kids together someday
The three of us talk about a lifetime
And for once it feels concrete
That forever may not exist
But if it does, we’ll be part of one another’s
That we’ll try
I believe us
I have things to say I think
For the three of us, for me
But in a Georgian forest
Running up our final hill
Lungs breathless and burning
I think I don’t have anything to say
I have things to do
People to love
Love to give
Love that has been given to me
If I choose it, if I see it
And I do