we were small

remember when we were small 
and we only knew our own hands
fat red and wriggling like little worms 
we didn't know the other hands, like the ones ticking by on a clock
counting the days we are farther away from where we began
and closer to where we will end
remember when we didn't know the dimensions
height, width, depth, and time
when we were too small in our bodies and in our minds to understand
that there are dimensions out of our chubby hands' reach
that not everyone will love you the way your mother does
that some people's love can only stand so high, reach so far, run so deep, last so long
remember the days when we were small
when love couldn't be measured 
by any dimension
height, width, depth, and time 
and we would stumble about, toppling over with the weight of our newborn hearts 
something quite unlike aged hearts, that wither and shrink like old lettuce tossed to the birds 
for you don't need a mind to love, because a mind thinks only in dimensions 
and like how a child believes he can live forever for never being told otherwise,
hearts think in infinitudes. 


-anna sluder

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