Fireworks of sunset slipped through your car windows as we spilled our lives to the music and the haze.
You, a girl cursed with the eyes of a woman, told me I was naïve about life because I still believed in it
It’s an image I hope to have forever etched into the inside of my eyelids
So that whenever I blink,
No matter what time of day,
I can always return to that moment

The suburbs, the alcohol, the wrong words, the loneliness
It can tackle a year and turn the smell of comfort into a warped sense of disillusion.

We’ll never escape this place
But with magic ice cream blends, half a bottle of rum, and a couple ping pong balls
We sure as hell can try.
And we will.

But if we look closely enough,
Past the clutter of lacrosse sticks, beer cans
Million dollar homes
And the dreams our parents forgot about in order to buy them,
We’ll notice how gorgeous the asphalt looks in August
And how beautiful this town can be once we remember all the birthday wishes that came true while we were busy catching butterflies
And all those times we locked hands with our neighbors during a game of Red Rover
Secretly hoping that the boy on the other team would race for one of our arms,
Knocking us off balance and breaking the monotony.

We sure did crash into our wishes.
Miscommunication knows no age.

Rules

First
Marry the springtime and
Swallow the fall
It may feel like it was winter once
But never worry,
Summer always cannonballs back into the gold of our eyes

Second
Remember the street you once adored
And the boys that chased your pigtails
Past the white house on Lenox Road
Just so they could hold your hand over lemonade and cookies

Third
Let your family laugh at how much you move like your father
And embrace the strangers in restaurants who say that you and your mother have the same face

Fourth
Forgive the boys in San Fransisco so that the whites of every man's eyes don't resemble that night

Fifth
Realize you'll never be original
You are the combination of everyone you've ever known,
Every experience you've ever had,
Every shitty night and incredible day you've thrived in
You are everything

Sixth
Drift
Your way through Europe with as many best friends as you can count with fingers
And in Paris,
Write a love letter to someone you've never loved
And send it to whoever needs to read it most
Like the homeless man outside the church on Sunday mornings
Or the little brother who knows that the eldest was just a first draft despite the shadow he created
Or to the three girls that danced and drank their way through four countries in two weeks with their elbows locked in yours

Seventh
Love them,
Love them with all your sins
As you convince yourself that you don't just write
You're a writer.
Let them write you

Eighth
May your life always be like Prague
And next Thanksgiving,
May nothing be missing but the turkey