An Ode to Miriam

From Emily

Her arms were around my neck and she was laughing,

She doesn’t do this much so it mattered to me.

Then she was crying but laughing still,

With her hair down she was under the streetlamp,

And I could see her crying and laughing,

And I loved her.

We got in the car and we drove,

It was all familiar you see,

The janky car, the dim headlights, the music playing out loud, the stuff cluttered on my seat,

The old familiar words filling new conversations.

Her familiar laugh,

A kind that blends with the music,

When the windows are down.

But not my window because I get cold easily.

It’s these kinds of moments when I’m sitting to her right that,

A part of me is stuck in time there,

I think.

I am glad a part of me is stuck there,

Listening to her talk and laugh over

And over.

And then all of sudden and at once,

I am unstuck from time,

And she’s telling me all these amazing things,

And I hear the song that’s playing,

And the dark trees that pass by the window,

And the stop light on her face,

And I’m like wow because there is no better word to describe it.

And I remember how glad I am to know her so well,

Know the way she speaks her mind,

Know the way she laughs,

Know the way she sees the world around her.

And I remember how much I love her,

Oh how I’ve loved and grown so much with this crazy, familiar, smart girl.