tulips

today on my way up to school i stop at the cemetery. i take off my sandals and walk barefoot under the oak trees beside the hundred year old graves. everything around is dry and cold. grey slabs of concrete, crinkled brown leaves. it's perpetually winter in this place.

i take a bunch of pink tulips with me and lay them on the littlest graves. children.

right there, in that moment, i am silent. quiet. inside and out. i tread through the leaves and look up at the pink-blue sky above the trees. i feel connected to the world around me. my soul is at rest.

i keep driving west, following the path of the setting sun. the last orange rays stream down behind the clouds, make ladders in the sky from earth to heaven. i want to fly up into the sunbeams, ride on the wings of the wind.

i am alive.