all the pretty ones in a row

If you have not yet seen this video, go check it out. A lovely afternoon kind of thing. Makes you want to walk through an art gallery, your hands folded behind your back, or perhaps your feet tucked under your legs, a sketch pad balanced on your narrow knee. Charcoal, pastels, oil, watercolor. Create.

The last week of school: cardboard boxes, binders end up, jeopardy scrawled on the white board, final exams, number two pencils, paper bag textbook covers, recycling bins overflowing, papers fluttering over the balcony like oversized confetti, great whoops in the hall and hollering, and soon, saying goodbye to the smooth texture of walls I put so many staples into, the wood cut pencil sharpener, the view of the football field, the reflective white boards, the colors gold and red, the wobbly desk drawer.

At home: dogs and guttural noises, tufts of fur like dandelion fuzz, seedlings making it through the night, soaking up the rain, flip flops chewed through, a stack of overdue library books, lack of sleep bags and damp beneath the eyes, fresh laundry, chocolate cake, homebrewed beer, wet noses, making it outside just before a puppy accident, leaning into him, the weight of me against the weight of his homecoming.


The smallest things: the ladybug determined on the mushrooms, no bigger than a thumbnail.


The faithful things: flowers we swear must be false (we have not had to get new ones, over a week now still), flowers that will top our cake and need the delicate structure an sipping cups, flowers that grow in our garden, flowers that come from bulbs and will return each year to greet us anew, in each of our changes, they are steadfast.

More faithful things: a marriage, now in two months and seven days. A dress still in reams of silky ivory, a sewing machine in anticipation, invitations smoothly run off the press. Our rings, nestled in velvet pouches, waiting for everyday use.