Corystes Cassivelaunus

I feel the effects of aging now. My bones feel hollow and soft, the spaces under my eyes tender and spidery delicate. Looking down at the lines in my hands and thinking of all of the years that carelessly slipped through my fingers. I wonder over and over again how I neglected to mark their passing with more care.

Wishing more than anything to be a child again, legs dangling and hair tangled, singing the wordless jubilant songs of youth that I used to make up, alone in the woods.
We would go the the ocean often. I remember distinctly digging in sand and finding white bony prehistoric creatures squirming in my palms. I shrieked in fear and delight, the most excellent combination of emotions I have as of yet to experience simultaneously.

It was a happy and ignorant time, a perfect frozen moment. I can see it so clearly, taste the salt from the spray and the grit of sand clinging to the backs of my knees. Before my father's shadow loomed so large. Before my mother looked so bent and broken.