for GHW and her sister, who know the secrets of youth even though we’re too young to know anything.
I took your dose too,
I wanted to feel it.
I wanted to know
If we earn the age we reach
When we’ve grown up by our sleeves.
But
The word was a bird in my mouth:
I was singing your sorrow to a subway.
You called me naïve, but I was
Counting tree rings in my coffee.
And I felt old enough.
—ECW
ECW Poetry 