Outside
By Nichelle Thinagar
Outside
By Nichelle Thinagar
Do you want to play outside?
The sun is shining,
The rain is gone,
It’s almost evening,
We won’t be long!
Let’s row to an island
And dig up some turnips
Let’s run for a while and
Try out a front flip!
Shall we climb up a tree,
Or lie on a trampoline
As we watch elephants in the clouds
And laugh at the birds’ sounds?
Shall we make bird berry soup
While the dew still sparkles on the lawn?
What do you want to do
Once the showers have gone?
Shall we play in the dying light,
Sled down hills until it’s night,
And bake cookies ‘til the dark is gone?
What could I do when you were gone?
The evening left.
The sun did too.
How can I love the twilight
If I don’t see it with you?
Let’s talk, just a bit,
Distance won’t matter —
We’re something miles can’t split.
Our fun’s just a bit scattered.
Shall we call just once?
Or meet every few months?
As we tell our travels’ tales
And laugh when all else fails?
Shall we go bake a cake?
And wonder how long it’ll take
For the blueberries to grow once more —
Something we’ll wait ‘til summer for.
Shall we talk when it’s late at night
When it starts to seem life isn’t quite right,
And type until we see the dawn?
Is this what life is when you are gone?
My soul is aching,
Is yours too?
Everything is taking
The joy I felt with you.
Let’s sit still for a while now,
And I think we’ve noticed how
The years have flown by and left us
To wonder why we’re left without “us”.
Shall I stare at my ceiling
And sever my feelings,
As I wonder in silence
How to once more be timeless?
Shall I tell you how I truly feel?
I’m shaking; where’d I lose those years?
And I can’t tell when this’ll end,
But I know that I’m fading, old friend.
Shall I tell you all that’s wrong with me,
Reveal my listless elegy?
I wish that you were here with me
As my world breaks gently.
And
when
it
all
shatters,
I will not know what is left
As I sink in the sea beneath stars.
I will not know where you are
When I remember those days of ours.
And I do not know why,
But still, every once in a while,
You’ll come to me with a smile
As if the summer never passed
As if the future were our past.
And though I’ve forgotten how,
Shall we sit in the sunlight
‘Til things start to feel right?
And shall we watch the skies,
And count the ravens in our eyes?
I can wish, but I know:
It’s one that you’re counting,
So forgive me, I’m drowning.
For one is for sorrow,
So we’ve lost our tomorrow.
And it’s far too cold for dreams to fly —
It’s far too cold for you and I.
And the ocean is deep,
Where sorrow may sleep.
Soundless and stark,
Endless and dark.
But I
cannot help
but clutch
at the dying light
But I
cannot let
you stray
from my dying life,
Even when the moonlight fails,
Even when the dark prevails,
When the ocean fills my lungs,
Once I lose what made us young,
Shall I beg? Shall I plead? Shall I wait for the storm to cease?
But the rain is falling,
The sun is gone.
It’s almost evening,
It won’t take long.
So do you want to play outside?