By Grace Ripperger

When I die, bury me in my childhood. Perhaps 

in the eternity of one hour;

perhaps in a blanket fort whose secret interior feels like a forever weekend; 

perhaps in the rage, the disbelief of a DVD scratched into no-more-movie past eleven minutes even;

perhaps in caterpillar fuzz on my fingerprints, its body an animated eyebrow on my hand skin;

perhaps in the car, singing along, alone, with the radio, commercial break (Mom, what’s for dinner?); in water slide spine ridges against mine, my back now splotched pink; in how cool rain refreshed me, swimming, in the warm lake, that’s how deep summer was; in a bug swarm above the uncut grass, their bodies visible only when sliced by the sun, maybe a circuit of neurons (who needs a developed prefrontal cortex, anyway?) or maybe a cloud or maybe an exhale; in the smell, stale and junk food and Toyota Camry and not-quite-goodbye, of my dad’s old car; in Sunny: silk fur petal ears (but watch out! buzzcut prickle if rubbed the wrong way!); in bare feet on bicycle pedals, and the spiky texture hurts in a good way, in an I-have-all-the-time-in-the-world way because everyone is still my friend,

because I am only one person—just me, me, me. 

Yes, that—that will do.

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Grace Ripperger is a Sophomore studying Creative Writing and Psychology. She enjoys writing poetry and short stories; currently, she is outlining a novel. In her free time, Grace listens to music, thinks about her novel, reads, and then thinks about her novel some more.