remember?

it’s 2002 and you’re watching Barbie and the Nutcracker for the millionth time / and you are always wearing pink that sparkly color that all of the princesses wear to compliment the glittering tiaras on their heads / and you are tiptoeing through life spinning on bare feet in fine ballet slippers you got just for this / to show off your dance routine in front of mom and dad / they’ll clap and insist that you have to show grandma and grandpa next time but it’s okay they got it on videotape / and watch this you launch off the couch and into the pillows on the floor / and you might get the wind knocked out of you but it’ll come back we should do it again / and we’re laughing baking muffins all the time and listening to our Disney greatest hits CD uh oh Aladdin can’t afford to eat gotta eat to live otherwise we’d get along / we’ll invite the neighbors over for tea and chocolate milk and little debbie’s but if they can’t make it that’s okay i’ll just invite Lamby and Bunny instead toasting to another sticky day in the sun while it’s warm / and mom will scold me for not wearing shoes again i liked my feet in the mud / the complete antithesis of every lesson in royal duties that i had learned / it was slick and felt good around my toes that was the fun part and yes i would wash myself off with the hose before i went inside / but for hours i would sit and make pies and soups out of grass and dirt and water and the sandbox had insects in there it’s a little gross to build castles out of that / we’ll climb the swing set and stand on the tallest part and be Queen of the Whole World or at least until it got dark outside / and we would go in and have milk with dinner / and if we were lucky we could watch a movie while eating spaghetti and laughing at silly jokes from Shrek / ugh mud again my mom would say and we’d scrub extra clean tonight as if seeing his swamp was the same as being in it i giggle as you grab my toes saying that it’s time for a nail trim it’s best to do it while they’re soft from the shower / in bed the lights will turn out but our glow in the dark stars will blink down on us as we drift off we listen to Enya’s celtic lilt and we have yet to know how it feels to be alone.