The Life That Could Have Been by Kimberly Stutevoss

The Life That Could Have Been

The color of periwinkle fills my eyes

As I open the can of paint

The strong smell encompasses me

And fills me with the memories

That I shared with Kareem Abdul Jabbar

On that warm evening in June

Sipping on Piña Coladas

And eating grapes in front of the ocean

The ocean was my favorite color of blue

Crystal like and beautiful

Taking off my socks

I walked through the sand

Until reaching the waves

We spent that warm evening in June

In Southern California

Enjoying our favorite meal,

Lobster bisque with crab cakes

That I had made by using a can opener

To open the ingredients

In the distance train sounds were softly passing

Adding an ice touch to our picnic

Until we heard the noises of its crash

The noise of the crash filled the air

We were too far to help but we prayed

To the profit Muhammad

As the evening went on

It got darker and Mars was shining bright

As well as its moon, Deimos

The stars shined bright

We made our own constellations,

One looked like a Cera dinosaur

And others looked like calico cats

We played a game of horseshoes

And slept in our mystery van

That had a tacky brown shag rug

It wasn’t the cleanest van

Because we always found ants

Marching one by one

We ignored them and drank our coffee

Talking about if we could go anywhere

Where would we go.

My wish was an African Safari

While his was to see a peacock

Because of their lovely feathers.

It was a warm evening in June

But a distant memory now

I like to think back to it

Reminding me of simpler times.