falling in love on vacation

You flicked your hair
out of your eyes and pointed, lazily.

Look, there.

We watched
thundering herds of alpaca
disappear over the mesa,
and then focused back on each other, dipping our toes
back into the rock-lined pool that meanders down the mountain.

Your skin was cool while my heart echoed their hooves.

Where would you be, today?
Are you all grown up
with kids
and a wife
and a dog
a horse ranch in the shadows of the hills?

and vague memories
of a summer long ago
with sun baked rocks and a lisping waterfall in the background

and a girl-woman whose heartbeat
was in time with yours.

Maybe you don't remember.

But
I
do.

Ah bah cah

After sweltering through the usual housework

it's almost relaxing
(almost)
to go through the sounds of the alphabet together
(almost reading! whee!)

but damn it's hard to fake enthusiasm
for those damned
phonics

again.

Somewhere in the back of my head I thought you'd absorb
this too, like
you've picked up on almost everything else your big brother does.

More fool me.

Ah?
Bah?
Cah?

This is a little like potty training.

And a lot like hell.