Sing her name

Oliver Smith, England

Give her a name perfect for song,
a name that lilts on the tongue,
rich as summer berries.
Call her Caroline. Sweet Caroline.
A tune for her nursemaid, who will lean down tenderly
to pinch rosy cheeks flushed from the cold.
A song for friends, to sing teasingly at the top of their lungs,
stereo blasting in the classic red convertible as she rolls her eyes.
A dance for a boy who charmed her enough to
celebrate their first anniversary at a dance bar down the corner at Smith’s Avenue.
Sweet Caroline, good times never seemed so good.

Drawing #5: Existing in abstract—a child’s lens

Oliver Smith, England

A sunflower hovers in place of the sun,
messy cyan squiggly streaks surround it like globs of noodles
(it would seem that the green of the grass has crept up to marry the blue of the sky).
It’s funny but I love the thought that maybe leaked glimpses of my five-year old mind
has been preserved on this slip of a paper world.

You can only be introduced to everything once, and
I know that maybe it’s impossible to replicate and recapture the wonder I had as a child.
But every once in a while, an old song plays, a familiar smell wafts and I’m taken back-
and I can remember the hysterical hilarity I found in the gurgle of a pigeon-
recall the thrill of getting front-row seats on the second floor of a double-decker public bus.

It was so different, being itty-bitty:
I think of the smug excitement of smacking the bedroom light switch
when I finally jumped high enough (after a full minute of manic jumping).

Maybe there was more to reach for as a child—
having not yet achieved much, each target met was
a fresh bloom budding- a success sweet as honey to taste.
I hadn’t yet grown picky- a flower was a flower, no matter its color, its rarity,
and its value was found in its glorious blooming rather than its beauty in its bloomed state.

Looking down at the scrappy sketches in my hand,
I can’t help but feel caught up with a whirlwind of missing
Little Me.

Oliver is a 21 year old with a love for fiction and who every once in a while, enjoys spinning stories with words.