I
Sunlight tickles my eyes.
Dancing dust whirls around me wrapped
in a blanket of ice blue sky. Glass beads
pool in my hand like water. I spill them out,
follow the sparkling flow. Cool to touch,
they soothe my soul. I sort them
in a pattern only I could know.
II.
Faces blur.
I recognize a voice, a walk.
Talcum and lavender breeze past.
I rock forward and back, watch a gold star
cast six-pointed shadows across my desk.
III
Words weave spells, spider webs
strung across the rafters of my mind.
Stories stuck to sticky threads
fill my head with worlds of wonder. I inhale
books, breathe their soft spicy scent.
Flip smooth pages back and forth across my face.
IV
Red rover red rover don't call me
over and over I walk along the playground fence,
slap my hand against cold metal links.
Only this chain unbroken.
V
I press glass shards together
bit by bit into a mosaic of memories.
Fingers raw,
I bleed the wounds clean.