many bright branches

dry yellow afternoon

we lie at the trunks of pines

as big as a room

a foot of needles cushion us

mint on our skin

we sink in

we look up

i no longer know you

you no longer know me

we are dark below

our years heavy underneath

all we see

is powder blue peeking through

we are new

let’s smell our flowers

we might be bittersweetly broken

but we are planted

the rain might still fall

but the day is incomplete

and we are pines

we are evergreen