pinwheels

your aunt sends me a video of you galloping in cowboy boots on the sidewalk. you’ve just left your mother at the hospital but you don’t seem sad. you’re too young for that. now, you gallop in your dress and cowboy boots. your reddish blonde hair bounces as you gallop. there are colorful pinwheels stuck in the grass lining each side of the sidewalk. they’re spinning in the light breeze. you run up to one and bend down and stop it with your hand. from a bent-over position, you look at the camera and smile. you’re impressed by your power. you get up and hop to the next one, puh-plunk a stutter step before you bend over again and stop it with your hand. you get up again and go to the next one, but before you bend over to stop that one, you turn back to look at the one you just stopped. it’s already started again…spinning, the green, red, yellow blurring together. you look at the camera with a different kind of smile. a surprised one. you turn away and bend over and stop the next. puh-plunk, the next. puh-plunk, puh-plunk…