wild girls

We are girls.

We are the girls who ran through the brush;

Our ankles scratched, our feet bare.

We are the girls who gathered

Thistles and dandelions,

Decorating our hair with pretty weeds.

We are the girls who picked off

Cockleburs and sticky sap

From once freshly laundered T-shirts.

We are the girls stuffing

Frogs and beetles into pockets,

carrying stones and flowers in buckets like treasure.

We are the girls swimming gayly in the creeks,

Our little bodies streaked with mud.

We are the girls who sang to the wind,

Hold audiences with the moon.

We are the girls chasing

Unbridled joy,

Longing to capture love.

We are the girls, steadily

Becoming women,

Tall and proud.

We are the girls now becoming mothers,

Passing on our songs and stories.

We are the wild girls,

Now we are women.