BHS Inkwell 2017-2018

Love in Five Moments

By Bethany Werner

1. I am tangled in your arms by the campfire, dancing beneath the smouldering stars.The music and the chatter of our friends weaves into a tapestry of noisy color in my ears, but I forget them, for all I can see is you. We are wild things, pounding along to our own rhythm, and you hold me. Your face wavers before mine, a smoky visage, and your scent is lemonade and chocolate and fireflies. My heart flutters wildly inside of my exoskeleton, a dancing candle wavering in your heat, and we laugh, golden grins mirroring the night, and as you throw your head back, eyes firelight and voice warm, more than anything else, I know: You are beautiful. 2. I am painted in the warm light of the kitchen, drunk on the sugary fumes and laughing. My brother has chocolate smeared across his smile, flour in his hair, and the joy of a toddler in his eyes. His knees are crowned with scrapes, relics of today’s adventures, but they are long forgotten. My stepmom holds out a wooden spoon covered in sticky batter, mouth quirked in a knowing smirk. Her neatly tied apron is smeared with the colorful battle scars of baking. I take the spoon, watching as she picks up my brother and twirls him around, and as he giggles, as they laugh, I know: They are beautiful. Ella Moeltner

Reid Holbert

3. I am running to my friend’s house as the stormy clouds overflow, splashing in the puddles as the sidewalk dips, and my friends are laughing around me. We are racing, ducking under dripping trees and I am holding my skirt against the blustering wind. We’re here, running up the driveway and dashing into the construction side of her house. We are drunk on mud and wood and petrichor, wiping the rain out of our eyes. I dry the rivers from my hair as my friends run back out again, standing in the pounding downpour and soon are soaked to the bone and giggling. We talk about love and god and the universe, eyes full of promise and mirth, and I see their souls, their goals, their dreams and I know, and I know: They are beautiful.

40