A Hundred Lifetimes

Your eyes are shining

In the way they always do

When concocting an ill fated plan

“Let’s build a treehouse!”

You yell

Heedless that we don’t have boards or nails or hammers

Or a tree

I smile as you excitedly wave your arms above your head

Cheeks flushed and hair coming out of that unruly ponytail

Showing me just how great our palace in the sky will be

These are my favorites

The lives when we grow up together

When we know each other before we even remember meeting

When we can laugh and play free

Like children

Because we are

You smile brightly as I think

How it seems I’m always taking care of you

Somehow

No matter age or time or place

But I don’t mind

You run off to the backyard to find a suitable tree for your grand designs

Knowing very well there isn’t one

I follow, as usual

Yelling in exasperation

I wish you could know

But I know it’s better that you don’t

If you never remember

There must be a reason

Maybe it’s so you don’t have to bear the burden

The pain of it

I’ll gladly take it all

If in just one in a hundred lifetimes

I can be beside you like this